Lost In Space and Time
by saturn95
Summary: Thirty-two year old Arnold Perlstein reflects on his childhood to a time when he and his classmates were first taken into outer space by their eccentric third-grade teacher Ms. Valerie Frizzle to see the wonders of our Solar System. He describes the many difficulties that involved his cousin Janet, and even mentions sightings among the planets that pre-date recent NASA discoveries.
1. First Impressions

**_Author Disclaimer_ : This story is solely based on the very first episode of the original _Magic School Bus_ series when Ms. Frizzle's class first went into outer space. It is also being told by Arnold, now in his thirties, as he reflects on his experiences through these particular events from Ms. Frizzle's third-grade class, and his mixed relationship with his cousin Janet. But of course, I will be putting my own spin on things. All of my stories up to this point, whether they be completed or not, have been told in third-person format, and I decided to try something different for a change with a completely different set of characters that I've grown up with and cherished. **

**I do not own _The Magic School Bus_. All copyrights and trademarks belong to Scholastic, Inc., as well as any other respective owners I might have forgotten to mention. ****Let me know what you think!** **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **First Impressions**

* * *

There were a hundred reasons why I wanted to stay home from school today. For a start, it was Monday. With the sun was shining as brightly as it was as it rose above the horizon, the thought of being in a school building (or any building for that matter) for most of the day just did not suit my mood. I just wanted to be outside and enjoy the spring weather with my friends, just like every other eight-year-old kid growing up in the mid-90s without the distraction of mobile phones to get them through their day (sorry, Generation Z). I trudged along, flicking a loose curl in my red hair as a slight breeze blew into my face at the sight of Walkerville Elementary, the place where I first met my then current, enthusiastic, yet wildly eccentric, teacher. Truth be told, I have since convinced myself that she might have been a Time Lord from _Dr. Who_ because, to this day, I still have no idea how Miss Valerie Frizzle, the teacher I have since come to cherish after all of these years, had been able to take me and the rest of my third-grade class to some of the most exotic, if dangerous, places on the planet in what looked and, most of the time, operated like an ordinary school bus.

From being inside of a rotten log, to diving to the deepest depths of the ocean, and even being turned into a rain drop (don't ask), every field trip I had been on seemed more impossible than the last. Just the thought of going on another crazy trip on the so-called "Magic School Bus" was enough to make it the second reason I did not want to go to school that day. With that said, however, it was not the main reason for my unreasonably pessimistic attitude that day. That reason was just a few feet ahead of me walking along the sidewalk.

"Come on, Arnold!" my almost-twin cousin Janet yelled rudely from ahead of me. "We're going to be late, you slow-poke!"

"Relax, Janet!" I yelled back. "School doesn't start for another half hour! Besides, we may not even go on a field trip today."

"You know what they say, Arnold…Only time will tell…"

"But you know what they also say?" I retorted. "Slow and steady wins the race."

Janet just simply scowled and continued walking in front of me at a brisk pace. Her short curly red-orange hair and white-and-yellow striped T-shirt design, except for a big "J" on the front and her short sleeves, had all matched mine that day. The only things that could tell us apart were the thick-framed, oval-shaped pink glasses she wore, contrasting greatly with my perfectly round, wireframe glasses, and her blue skirt versus my blue jeans. If I was only able to describe Janet with three words that day, they would be as follows: abrasive, stubborn, and arrogant. She was the posterchild of the know-it-all stereotype, going so far as to brag about how she could be better at anything, no matter who was in the room. While her and I both went to the same public institution, she was typically situated in another classroom with a different teacher, much to my relief at the time.

Today, however, was an entirely different matter.

She had requested my aunt and uncle to spend the day with me in Miss Frizzle's class, just so she could see for herself how unusual "The Friz" really was. Had I not opened my big fat mouth about our field trips, Janet probably would not have bothered going through all the trouble to pester my aunt and uncle to join me. I was immediately regretting it. Thankfully, I have since grown numb to Janet's constant barrage of know-it-all dialogue, only to say something witty back to her that she could not deny being true. Truth be told, I quite liked giving Janet a taste of her own medicine. But what would my classmates think of her? The thought was enough to send shivers down my spine, but it would not be long before I would find out.

* * *

If there was one thing I have learned from being in Ms. Frizzle's classroom, it's to never judge a book by its cover. Her classroom was not the largest by any means. At first glance, one might think that they were just any other classroom at Walkerville Elementary: the cubbyhole desks, the educational content hanging on every wall (the current science topic being the Solar System), and the large teacher's desk in the corner, everything on the surface all looked very ordinary. I followed Janet inside and saw that my classmates were already inside. Looking over towards the window, I caught sight of Ralphie on a step stool reaching up to a large display, our classroom project, to hang a small blue sphere representing the Earth from string next to a large yellow disk representing the Sun. Phoebe was standing behind him, presumably passing the other planets up to him as everyone finished their part of the project.

"Pass me that one next, Phoebe." I heard Ralphie say, after which I heard Phoebe say "Okay, Ralphie." as she handed him the light-yellow sphere representing Venus.

Despite his heavy-set figure, Ralphie Tennelli was the class athlete, as well as the class daydreamer as I do recall. He played a lot of sports, so much in fact that he would daydream about playing them when not playing them. While he was outgoing, kind, imaginative, and fun loving, he was also, on rare occasions, cowardly, usually in the face of danger. He had dark brown hair that fell across his forehead and a red baseball cap that he wore backwards on his head. He also sported a lime-green T-shirt with a big, red letter R on the front, as well as dark green pants and a pair of red and white sneakers.

As the newest member of our class, it came as no surprise that Phoebe Terese was the shyest out of all of us. She was also the sweetest and most kind-hearted girl in our class, a genuine caring soul. I sort of got the impression that she had a slight crush on me, especially after the time she helped me chase down a dinosaur that stole a fossilized egg that I had borrowed. She had shoulder-length, auburn hair in reverse flip that was usually kept parted behind a yellow headband and two parted bangs, and she usually wore a yellow-long-sleeved collared blouse, red shortalls, yellow knee-high socks and brown loafers. Truth be told, as timid as I was at the time, I thought she was sort of pretty.

Carlos and Dorothy Ann were in the back corner adding finishing touches to Saturn, while Keesha and Tim were working on Uranus and Neptune. Liz, Ms. Frizzle's pet lizard, simply watched us kids in fascination. Ms. Frizzle, however, was not yet in the classroom, probably taking care of important teacher business before the start of class. In the center of the classroom, I saw Wanda. Her and I oversaw the making of Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System. We had since built and painted the planet and were currently working on painting its four large moons. I walked over to her, leaving Janet to converse with the others. There was no need for me to introduce her to everyone since she was already introducing herself. Wanda looked up at me and smiled.

"Hey, Arnold! What took you so long?" she asked, setting down the paintbrush that was in her hand.

Wanda Li was the most boisterous and toughest tomboy of the class if my memory serves me. She came from an Asian-American family, with her mother being a very talented science writer. Despite being tough and aggressive at times, she usually showed a soft and caring personality. And even though she was the shortest kid in Ms. Frizzle's class, she had shown to have athletic prowess after proving herself to be the highest jumper in the class in our class jumping contest. In physical looks, Wanda had short black hair and usually sported a pink shirt, maroon vest, maroon trousers, white socks and black Mary Jane shoes. Today was no exception.

"I'm sorry, Wanda." I said. "I didn't realize everyone would be here so early. I had to go meet with my cousin before coming here."

"It's alright, Arnold." Wanda said. "Is that your cousin over there?"

She pointed over to Janet, who was introducing herself to Carlos and Dorothy Ann.

"Yep, that's her…" I replied. Wanda must have noticed the way I felt through the tone of my response and looked at me with a concerned expression.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah. I'm still a little tired, that's all."

I did not want to express my utter annoyance towards Janet, and for good reason. It all boiled down to first impressions, and I was not going to allow my feelings to stain my classmates' opinions of Janet. It was up to them to figure it out for themselves.

"Did you get the chance to finish up the moons of Jupiter?" Wanda asked me.

"I did." I replied, pulling out a small plastic bag from my backpack containing four small painted spheres. "I tried to get as close to the pictures as I could."

"They look great, Arnold!" Wanda replied. "I just finished some final touches on Jupiter, what do you think?"

"I couldn't have done any better." I said. "Great job, Wanda."

"Thanks! I think we're ready to take these over to the model."

"Here, I'll take that." I said, as Wanda handed me the giant planet. It was so large, that if Carlos' and Dorothy Ann's Saturn model were not there to serve as a counterweight, our Jupiter model would have ripped the entire display from the ceiling. Looking back over to Dorothy Ann and Carlos, I saw that they were still putting some final touches on their model, so I decided to wait until they were finished to actually hang Jupiter onto the model.

Dorothy Ann Rourke, or "D.A." for short, was the undisputed class bookworm. As far as I can remember, she always had some sort of book were her at all times, whether it was related to our current science topic, a work of fiction, or even a cookbook. It was no wonder she later graduated from medical school with high honors. She had a very keen interest in astronomy and physics and was just downright brilliant in both subjects. Her blonde hair was usually tied up in pigtails by two red rubber hair bands, and she usually sported a violet turtleneck sweater, a turquoise pleated skirt, purple ankle-length socks, and maroon and white sneakers. Despite her high intelligence, Dorothy Ann also had an argumentative personality and even clashed with the others from time to time, including myself. Most of the clashing, however, usually occurred between her and Wanda. With Janet around, however, I somehow got the impression that her usual argumentative sessions, if they came about, would be placed on the backburner that day.

And then there was Carlos Ramon, the unquestioned class clown. I remember him always coming up with puns or jokes about whatever situation our class was in during our field trips, even if most of them were mediocre at best. His jokes, dry as they may have been, always provided some comedic relief in the face of danger in my opinion, even if the rest of the class groaned in annoyance. Unlike Dorothy Ann, who learned through reading books, Carlos was more of a hands-on learner, making him something of a foil to the blonde-haired bookworm. In physical looks, he had short black hair and would usually wear a yellow T-shirt, a blue hooded sweater, red trousers, and black and dark blue converse sneakers.

As I went over to where Ralphie and Phoebe stood, both D.A. and Carlos looked over to me as I carried the giant model.

"Are you guys already finished?" Dorothy Ann called out to me.

"Yeah." I replied. "We were going to wait for you guys to finish to hang ours up. It's a little heavy and we need a counter weight."

"We're just finishing ours up, Arnold." Carlos said. "It won't be long."

Just then, my cousin approached me.

"What are you doing?" she asked in her usual trademark voice.

"I was just about to take this over there." I said, pointing over to where Ralphie and Phoebe stood and talked to one another.

"It's going to be a model of the Solar System. Neat, huh Janet?"

"Uh…" Janet began with a chuckle, her tone suggesting lack of amusement and that another bragging session was about to ensue.

Oh boy…

"I hate to tell you, cousin Arnold, but when _my_ class built one, the Sun was so huge we had to hang it from the flag pole…"

I had no idea Keesha was standing behind me.

"And you had all _nine_ planets?" she asked, her voice almost made me drop the model Jupiter onto the ground from the sudden surprise. She must have been listening to me and Janet talk for entire twenty seconds we were standing there. Tim was standing beside her, carrying their model of Neptune in his right hand.

Being the most level-headed and realistic student in Ms. Frizzle's class, Keesha Franklin was also the most sarcastic. Because of her skepticism, she usually argued with Ralphie, who, as I mentioned earlier, tended to live in his imagination. She was also very ambitious but would stop her pursuit when she was either wrong or putting others in danger during a class field trip. In appearance, she had brown skin and curly dark brown hair that was tied into a high bun held by a fuchsia hair tie. She often wore a matching fuchsia sweater with a light blue stripe around it, a fuchsia skirt, cobalt blue tights, and fuchsia ballet flats. Her favorite color was, you guessed it, fuchsia.

On the other hand, Tim was the most observant and artistic student in the class. He, like Keesha, had dark skin, but was usually seen wearing a blue Henley shirt with a green neckline, navy trousers and black and mauve sneakers. Although he was not necessarily the quietest student in our class, he was still very seldom talkative, much like Phoebe, and was usually found drawing something in his sketchbook. But that's not to say Tim was antisocial. In fact, he would occasionally tell jokes, sometimes in conjunction with Carlos, or even express them in his artwork. One of my favorite instances of this was his Ralphie-inspired comic book _The Adventures of Weatherman_ (which I still have a copy of, by the way), something he drew up when our class was learning about weather. From what I recall, his grandfather used to own a bee farm outside of Walkerville, but that's all I can remember.

Janet was quick to answer Keesha's inquiry.

"That's right, Keesha. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto…Every single planet was on our model."

And there went Janet, showing off how smart she was once again. If only I could have corrected her about Pluto. But to be fair, the thought of demoting Pluto to a dwarf planet status was still a decade away. We did not even know that its status as a planet was going to be questioned, even with the very recent discovery of what would later be called the Kuiper Belt. In those days, if a body was round and orbited the Sun, it was called a planet. It was not until the discovery of other bodies like Pluto, such as Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and Sedna that scientists panicked and revised their ideas of what a planet should be to keep the number planets in the Solar System down to a reasonable amount. Despite this, Pluto is still considered a planet in my book. After all, that was how I learned it, and I learned it from none other than Ms. Frizzle. Hell, I was even assigned to write a report on that distant world. I would imagine if she were still teaching today, she would be teaching her students about the _eight_ planets and the numerous dwarf planets of our Solar System. I suspected Ms. Frizzle would probably have been against the idea of Pluto's demotion in 2006, but more on that later.

" _My_ class already studied the Solar System…" Janet went on. Ralphie turned around at the top of the ladder, now interested in the conversation that was taking place.

"I bet _your_ class didn't learn about the _aliens_ that live on the planets."

I had to resist the urge to laugh. It was no surprise, at least to me, that Ms. Frizzle later assigned Ralphie to write a report on Mars, probably to somehow cure his then-sudden obsession with aliens.

"Well, for your information, Ralphie, Earth is the only planet that can support life as far as we know." Janet replied in a somewhat collegiate, academic tone, as if to imitate a distinguished astrobiologist.

"And how far do _you_ know?" He asked jokingly, catching everyone else in the room off guard. Laughter ensued shortly thereafter, but Janet was surprisingly unfazed by Ralphie's remark and instead shot back.

" _Very_ far, actually. In fact, I have straight A's on all my tests, and this proves it…"

And Janet proudly pulled out her report card for everyone to see.

Dear god… If that was not a sign of self-induced self-esteem issues, nothing was. It wasn't like she had to present her case in front of a grand jury. Maybe in her mind she did. I didn't know then, and I still don't know now. In any case, Janet was already showing her true colors as the drama continued to unfold before my eyes.

"If you already know so much, Janet, why did you come to visit _our_ class?" D.A. asked.

"Because Arnold told me all about your _field trips_ , Dorothy Ann."

This was not the first time Janet threw me under the bus (no pun intended, of course). Typically, I would have just dismissed her dialogue and treat it as if it were no more important than my rock collection. But for her to publicly call me out in front of my classmates was just wrong, at least in my mind. I had no idea what to say as everyone looked over in my direction with faint disapproval. I could feel my cheeks and body warm up out of embarrassment and humility.

"What did he say?"

"He said that they were, and I quote, 'highly unusual'. But you know what I said?"

D.A. and Carlos simply shook their heads out of confusion.

"No, what?" Carlos asked, breaking the awkward silence.

" _Prove it!_ "

Great… Now the class knew the whole truth. Janet was here because of _me_. They knew how much of a smart-Alek she was and how she would stop at nothing to make herself look better than everyone else. My so-called 'reputation' was already crumbling.

"She's…really nice…Once you get to know her…" I stuttered, trying to keep my neutral expression. My reassuring words did not seem to change the idea in everyone's mind that Janet was a complete and utter nuisance. With the Jupiter model still in my hands, I sighed, slipping robotically into one of the nearby chairs just as the classroom door suddenly opened. I turned around, already knowing who it was. The Friz had finally arrived.

* * *

 **And that was the first chapter! Let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is also very much appreciated! Another thing I want to note here: I do plan on adding some elements from the PC game _The Magic School Bus Explores The Solar System_ later on the story as well when the time comes. This means the possibility of some additional exploration of the Solar System, but I can't say too much at the moment because I'd hate to reveal everything at once. In the next chapter, Arnold will explore more of Ms. Frizzle's character and detail his struggle to prove to Janet once-and-for-all that the Friz and their field trips are "highly unusual". Hope to see you then!**

 **saturn95**


	2. A Normal Field Trip? I think Not!

**I do not own _The Magic School Bus_. All copyrights and trademarks belong to Scholastic, Inc., as well as any other respective owners I might have forgotten to mention.**

* * *

 **A Normal Field Trip? I Think Not!**

* * *

Although my third-grade teacher was very eccentric and a bit mysterious, Ms. Frizzle was the most intelligent, optimistic, caring, resourceful, happy-go-lucky, passionate, friendly, funny, and supportive teacher that I have ever had in the entirety of my education. I don't recall ever seeing her in a negative mood, or even show any signs of fear for that matter, especially in the face of danger. I remember the time when a deinopis spider ensnared her in its trap during a previous field trip into its web and how she had smiled and laughed as the creature was about to harm her. Although she was fortunate enough to break free before the spider had its merry way, there was no convincing me otherwise that Ms. Frizzle had a bit of a crazy streak based on her reaction. As far as I'm concerned, it would be highly unusual for a teacher of her magnitude of eccentricity to _not_ have said crazy streak.

The Friz's level of intelligence was also something to commemorate. No question was ever left unanswered, and no answer was ever too generic. As a result, I had the impression in my then eight-year-old mind that she knew everything there was to know. In addition to being able to answer questions with ease, the fact that the Friz always seemed to know what us students were up to, even when some of us thought we were keeping her in the dark, seemed to justify my claim. Even as I watched her enter the classroom, I could tell that she was somehow already aware that my cousin was giving her introduction to my classmates.

"Oh, good morning class!" Ms. Frizzle said as she welcomed and entered the classroom with her signature smile and uplifting enthusiasm. "Have you all met Arnold's cousin, Janet?"

The unanimous annoyed response from everyone in the room could not have been more appropriate.

" _Yes, Ms. Frizzle_ …"

To be honest, I could not decide whether to pay attention more to Janet's dumbfounded expression, or to the Friz's choice of apparel, which was responsible for the look on my cousin's face. My teacher's frizzy red hair was tied into its usual bun style, and she wore the same style of dress she usually wore. But it was the intricate patterns on her dress that made me ponder the rest of the events that day.

Experience had taught me that the designs on Ms. Frizzle's clothing (whether they magically moved or glowed) often foreshadowed what our class would be learning about during our next field trip. If her dress had saltwater fish on it, we knew we would end up exploring the ocean. If we saw lightbulbs and batteries adorning Ms. Frizzle's outfit like the lights and ornaments of a Christmas Tree, it came as no shock that we would end up moving inside an electric current. And, if she sported a jumpsuit reminiscent of the costumes used in the movie _Tron_ , there was no question that our class would end up exploring the internal workings of our school computer. There was a costume for _every_ science topic we covered in (and out of) class, no matter how mundane or extraordinary the subject may have been.

Today was no exception.

Ms. Frizzle sported a cobalt-blue dress with a purple collar that depicted complex designs of suns, crescent moons, stars, and planets, with matching cobalt-blue high heels that had tiny rocket-shaped pom decorations in place of the usual flower-shaped poms found on most high heel shoes. She also wore two large bejeweled earrings, one on each ear, both in the shape of the planet Saturn. But the most striking thing that the Friz sported was her headband, on which sported an entire planetarium featuring all the planets of the Solar System. Each planet dangled about half a foot from Ms. Frizzle's head on string that was suspended by tiny wooden supports. Each support was attached to her headband and reached outwards like the tentacles of an octopus, so as not to let the planets dangle right in front of her face. All of it conspired to make me think that another field trip was imminent.

Janet looked from Ms. Frizzle to me, then back to Ms. Frizzle, and then back to me before whispering something in my ear.

" _My_ teacher doesn't dress like _that_." she said.

"Oh, that's nothing." I whispered back. "Sometimes the Friz looks _totally_ outrageous."

"You don't say…"

I could tell Janet was being sarcastic. Even so, her expression told me that she was still taken aback by Ms. Frizzle's dramatic entrance, obviously different than what she was accustomed to in her class. Even so, I made no further comment as the Friz walked towards her all-too-normal looking desk in the corner. She took the Solar System off her head, placing it on top of the small stack of books she had been carrying in her arms just a moment ago and glanced back at us students with her large smile.

"Well, since we're lucky enough to have a guest today," the Friz said, "I say it's a perfect time for a _field trip!_ "

I was right.

Predictably, the entire class erupted in cheers and fanfare. I couldn't help but manage a smile, knowing that my previous statements about Ms. Frizzle's wardrobe and their connection to our class field trips had once again been vindicated. However, my smile quickly evaporated as I turned around and saw Janet giving me a challenging smile, remembering the very reason why she was visiting my class in the first place. Obviously, she wasn't there to make any new friends.

"Hey cous, now's your chance to _prove it_ …" she said, walking towards the Friz and the others as they made their way single-file out the door and down the hall. I gulped, swallowing my saliva as I began to contemplate what would happen in the next few minutes. Where would the Friz take us this time? Surely not into a rotten log or hundreds of feet below the ocean… We've already been to and done crazy things in those places. Then, I remembered our current topic of discussion and the designs on my teacher's dress. The gears of my mind began to turn.

* * *

"We're going to the planetarium? Hardly _unusual_ , Arnold…" Janet pouted in the seat next to me as the bus made its way down Main Street. The Friz taking us on a normal field trip? Now _that_ was unusual…

From the corner of my left eye, I thought I caught a glimpse of Ms. Frizzle and Liz exchanging a wink. I didn't think much of it at the time, but instead focused on the scenery outside as the bus continued down the road at a steady twenty-five miles per hour. Me and Janet were situated on the back row of the magic bus, which, contrary to popular belief, is a short bus and not a standard-sized one used for picking up and dropping off children. As small as it was, the bus was more than enough to accommodate our small class, let alone contain countless hidden switches and buttons for operations that only the Friz herself would have understood. I wonder how much weight all those controls added to the vehicle? At any amount, the controls must have been ridiculously compact for them to be out of sight.

Looking around, I got the feeling that I was not the only person on the bus that was confused. Ralphie, who was situated in the left middle seat next to Keesha, looked back towards me and we exchanged similar confused looks.

"Is it just me or is it unusual that nothing out of the ordinary has happened yet?" he asked in a sort of hushed voice.

"Yeah…" I said. "Very weird…"

For the record, Ralphie and I had always gotten along very well in Ms. Frizzle's class. In fact, him and I have remained best friends in the years following our initial meeting in the Friz's class, even to this day. For most of elementary school, him and I would often hang out at each other's houses or meet up with Tim and Carlos at the park. When we weren't playing outside, we were usually found in the basement of Ralphie's house playing pool, cards, board games or Super Nintendo on an old 1980s projection screen television ( _Super Mario All-Stars_ was usually the game of choice). It wouldn't be until middle school until Carlos and Tim joined our small "gamer club", but we still had get-togethers every so often for the remainder of our elementary years at their houses as well.

I looked around the interior of the bus to see what my other friends were doing. Wanda was to my left in the seat next to me and Janet and was staring out the window just as I had been a few moments earlier. In front of me were Carlos and D.A., with D.A. already buried in one of the books she had been carrying around in her pink book bag. The title of the book was _The Grand Tour: A Traveler's Guide to the Solar System,_ _2_ _nd_ _Edition_ by William K. Hartmann and Ron Miller, something way above the reading level of a normal third had, undoubtedly, been reading up on the Solar System prior to today, familiarizing herself with each planet and moon. I'm still surprised she never took a job at the Walkerville Library to be the chief librarian. But even as I watched her turn to the next page, I could somehow tell through her subtle body language that she was just as puzzled as I was. Even Carlos, who usually told jokes and laughed at his own puns, was unusually quiet. Phoebe, who was situated in the very front of the bus in the right-hand seat, was also unusually still given her overall introverted personality.

The only one who seemed to not react to the bizarre level of normality was Tim, who also sat in the front row, but on the left-hand seat. Any signs of confusion he may have had were masked by the distraction of his trusty sketchbook and his assortment of pens and pencils. I could only get subtle glimpses of his sketchpad, but it looked as though he was drawing a scene with strange-looking aliens that looked as though they came straight out of _Doom_. Perhaps he got inspiration from it?

"You know, Arnold. You and your friend Ralphie aren't fooling me with your little conversation." Janet said out of the blue in her usual mocking tone. "You might as well give up and _admit_ that this field trip isn't very unusual."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I'm not trying to fool anyone."

"Oh, yeah? Well then where's all of that weird stuff that you told me about?"

"Just be patient, Janet." I said firmly. "We'll get there when we get there."

"Yeah, Janet. Besides, your cousin Arnold here isn't one for fooling around." Carlos said, turning his head around to face me and my cousin. "That's my job."

"Way to state the obvious, Carlos." D.A. said with a chuckle.

Suddenly, the bus came to a somewhat sudden stop as we pulled up in front of the looming building that was the Walkerville planetarium. Looking out the window from my vantage point, the building appeared to be unusually vacant. There were no cars in the parking lot, and the gate leading up the front entrance appeared to be locked tight with padlocks and chains. Surely, the planetarium wouldn't be closed on a Monday. Would it?

"Hm, Hm, Hmm… How odd…" Ms. Frizzle said as she saw the locked gate. "Closed today…"

 _Closed_? On a Monday? No, that couldn't be right. Surely there had to be a mistake!

"Well, looks like we'll just have to go back to school…"

The whole class groaned in a collective _Oh no_! reaction. No weird sights or crazy stunts? No planetarium? No _field trip_? Why was Ms. Frizzle, the same teacher that took me and my class to the Arctic and the Amazon, giving up so easily? This was _not_ the Ms. Frizzle I had since come to know. Granted, it usually scared me (at least for a little while) whenever the Friz took us to some exotic locations, but somehow it didn't nearly bother me as much as the prospect of having to go back to school and learn things the old-fashioned way. My idea of hell is to be strapped into a chair and to be forced to sit still for the rest of my life.

Well, in theory at least.

I turned to my right and saw Janet give me that signature sneer of hers. I groaned, realizing that proving myself to her was becoming a lost cause as the bus slowly started making its way back down the road.

"Wow, some field trip, Arnold…" she said mockingly. "This sort of thing would have never happened with _my_ teacher around."

Let me take my previous comments back.

Being trapped next to my loudmouth egocentric cousin for the rest of my life _and_ getting strapped tight to a chair is my idea of hell. Janet's bragging words, once as easily dismissible as gibberish, were now beginning to sound more corrosive and earsplitting than the sound of a manicure addict at a mathematician's convention. New feelings started bubbling in my veins. Among these, feelings of regret for opening my mouth in front of Janet about my field trips, as well as annoyance from the fact that she was now joining my class for the day were becoming all-too obvious.

And then there was _anger_. Most potent of all.

Sunlight glinted from my glasses as if to express the fact that she had just struck an important nerve. Was she insinuating that Ms. Frizzle was a _bad_ teacher? I'd like to see _her_ teacher make science as fun and exciting as Ms. Frizzle does! I would've bet lunch money over it if I could. In any case, she had no idea what she was getting herself into.

I was nearing my boiling point, to the point where I just wanted to scream in Janet's face and shut her up for the next month, though I doubted even _that_ would have been enough to calm my nerves. Everyone else seemed to be watching me as my face started to contort into an expression of utter disgust that, to my realization, had not been seen in Ms. Frizzle's class before, at least not at this level.

"You know what? _My_ teacher would've called ahead, because _my_ teacher plans ahead…" Janet continued, unrelenting. " _My_ teacher never makes mistakes. That's because _my_ teacher is _good_ at what she does. _My_ teacher doesn't wear weird clothes or carry around a pet lizard. _My_ teacher is a gazillion times better than…"

"ENOUGH!"

I had enough. Everyone in the bus, except for the Friz, gasped at my sudden outburst of rage, but at that point I just didn't care. Liz, who was now on the back of the seat, must have felt the same way and gave Janet an angry look, presumably from the lizard comment. I turned my head towards my cousin, pointing my finger at her face and cut her off from any further dialogue as I started making my verbal rounds with her. How dare she insult my favorite teacher like that!

" _Nobody_ is better than Ms. Frizzle!"

"Oh yeah? _Prove it!_ "

It was either now or never. Out of desperation, I searched my brain for a possible solution to Janet's challenge. Then, in a split second, I made my decision. I stood up from my seat and waved my hand desperately to get Ms. Frizzle's attention.

"STOP THE BUS!" I yelled.

Miraculously, she stepped on the brake and brought the bus to a complete, if sudden, stop. That was the hardest part of my plan. The rest would be a piece of cake. Everyone's gaze was glued on me as I started to make my way up to the front of the bus down the aisle as if they were watching a celebrity on the red carpet, but with none of sparkling glamor normally associated with Hollywood actors. With my nerves still somewhat on edge, I managed to calm myself back to normal as I approached Ms. Frizzle and she turned toward me with her unbroken smile. Time to make inquiries.

"Yes, Arnold?" she asked.

"Isn't there… you know… someplace else you can take us for a field trip?"

"You mean, another planetarium?"

"Well, sort of… but… _bigger_."

"Bigger?"

"You know… the… _big one_ …"

"Oh! Bahahaha! Arnold! Why didn't _I_ think of that?"

 _Think of what, exactly?_

"Seat belts, everyone!" Ms. Frizzle yelled as I went back to my seat. "We're going on a _real_ field trip!"

Whatever she meant by that, I knew it was probably going to blow Janet's mind. But what exactly did Ms. Frizzle have in mind for a 'Plan B' field trip? Then, suddenly, I knew.

"T minus five and counting…" I heard her say.

 _Oh… crap…_

"Four… Three… Two… One… BLAST OFF!"

In the time it takes to say _Ms. Frizzle had this planned all along_ , the interior of the bus had completely transformed to something reminiscent of a commercial air flight, but with the adornment of countless technological gadgets, monitors, and workings normally associated with space station interiors. Even the outside of the bus had transformed, now sporting wings on either side and presumably a fin on the roof. But it was the loud sound of rocket engines that made everyone excited. The sounds grew louder… and louder… and even louder before I realized that the bus was now pointed skyward. Then, in a sudden rush of adrenaline, I felt the bus shoot straight up into the sky at frightening speed, causing me and everyone else on the bus to sink back into our chairs with unimaginable force. The speed at which the bus was now travelling was indescribable. It felt like we were on the fastest roller coaster in the world… times a hundred.

My ears began popping uncontrollably as I looked over towards Janet, who was already looking back at me with complete and utter disbelief.

"What's happening?!" I heard her yell over the rockets.

Despite my own sudden panic and shock, I somehow managed a slight smile.

"A field trip…" I replied smugly. "That's what's happening."

"I take back what I said, Arnold! This field trip _is_ highly unusual!"

"Told you, Janet!"

"Hey guys! Did anyone notice that we're now wearing space suits?!" I heard Tim yell from the front. I looked down and was surprised to see that he was right. My normal clothes had, in fact, been covered with layers hard tailor-made nylon. Everyone else seemed to notice too. Even the Friz was now sporting her own spacesuit, tailored with the same colors and designs that had adorned her dress a few moments ago.

The sounds of the rocket engines got quieter the farther up we ventured. As the air vents inside the bus turned on (presumably to equalize the interior pressure), I was able to catch the sight out Janet's window. The town of Walkerville had since been reduced to a tiny dot against the surrounding brown and green mountains and hills, which were now beginning to take on a bluish cast at our present altitude. The white clouds that hung in the sky above me earlier were now floating far below in the depths, and the sky overhead displayed a strikingly dark blue hue, a hue that was gradually fading to the deathly shade of black as our altitude kept increasing. By this point, the blasting sounds of the rocket engines had disappeared, and I was now able to see the curvature of the Earth.

Earth!

I did a double-take, not believing for a second the sight outside the now circular-shaped window. But I hadn't dreamt it. We really were above the Earth's atmosphere and looking down onto the entire planet.

"Welcome to outer space, class!" Ms. Frizzle voiced through the onboard intercom. "The only planetarium open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week! And how are all of my astronauts doing?"

Everyone on the bus laughed at the Friz's question.

"We're weightless!" D.A. shouted as she started floating out of her chair, book still in hands.

"It doesn't take a book to know that!" Ralphie replied as he started floating in my general direction.

"Come on, Arnold!" Janet ushered me. "It's not every day we get to experience weightlessness!"

"I don't know…" I said. But before I could fight her, Janet had already messed with my seat belt buckle and I was floating upside down through the bus. My cousin followed behind me, but I wasn't mad at her from unbuckling my belt. Oddly enough, I felt like thanking her, despite having spent the better part of the morning fighting with her and dealing with her usual antics.

Let me tell you, gravity is overrated! Although we were technically in a state of perpetual freefall, it was nevertheless fun to just float around and play space tag with my friends. I was, quite literally, bouncing off the walls with joy.

"We are now in orbit around our home planet, Earth!" Ms. Frizzle said through the intercom.

"Look! It's so beautiful!" I could hear Phoebe say.

I refocused my attention out the window. It was a fair statement. I've seen plenty of photographs taken by NASA astronauts both before and during my time in Ms. Frizzle's class, but none of them compare to seeing it through it through my own eyes. I could feel tears develop in my eyes as I struggled to take in the incomprehensible beauty of my home planet. For a moment, I couldn't help but wonder if this was how astronauts felt as they went to the Moon or rode on the Space Shuttle, but I decided that my reaction was no different than theirs.

I looked down, making out the outline of North America as the bus continued sailing around the planet. Apart from the unmistakable blue hue of the bordering seas and oceans and the bright icy white of the north pole, I could see patches of light and dark green that made up grassy plains of the American Midwest, the swamplands of the American south, the temperate forests of Canada, the tropical rainforests of Central America, as well as patches of light brown that made up the deserts of the American southwest. There were also gray patches at higher latitudes that made up the Canadian tundra and I could even make out the snow-capped Rockies stretching all the way from the American southwest to Alaska. White clouds were swirling around, creating jet streams, storms, and all other kinds of weather phenomena.

Using my eyes, I traced through Mexico and the isthmus of Panama and was able to spot the upper portion of South America. Sunlight glinted off the Gulf of Mexico, giving me the impression that Earth's water was somehow made of polished stone or glass. It was no wonder the Apollo astronauts coined the term _blue marble_ to describe our home planet.

"And there's air we can breathe." Keesha said, going off Phoebe's comment. "It's not too hot and it's not too cold…"

"Well, Keesha, as our old friend Goldilocks would say," Ms. Frizzle began, "it's _just right_. It's the only planet that we know of that can support any kind of life, let alone _intelligent_ life like us. Every leader, scientist, engineer, author, athlete, artist, musician, pretty much every person that lives or has lived, and every event in human history - wars, plagues, the rise and fall of civilizations, breakthroughs in science, triumphs, celebrations, holidays, sporting events, – all of it, with the exception of the Moon landings, has happened down there, on that _small_ blue planet spinning through space we call home."

My mind began to wander after the Friz's Saganesque mini-lecture. I suddenly felt very, _very_ small. Everything I have come to know through my life up until then has all happened on Earth, and it was likely that after this field trip the rest of my life would be spent there too. To think that this place, this blue gem in the sea of black space is just an infinitesimally tiny part of the greater Universe was simply mind-boggling.

I had left all of that behind.

"Wow…" Keesha said. "I've never thought of it that way…"

"I have no words." I heard Tim say in front of me. "This is just incredible!"

"This is just the beginning." Ms. Frizzle said. "Hold on, class! We're going over the _night_ side!"

I felt Janet tug on my sleeve.

"You were right, cous!" she said merrily, "this field trip is amazing! My friends will be SOOO jealous! Thanks for letting me tag along!"

"If by that, you mean beg your parents to let you join my class, then you're welcome." I said.

"Oh, quit being such a Negative Nancy, Arnold!" she replied.

I stuck my tongue out at her in a mocking, slightly immature gesture that suggested my relish in seeing her world view shaken.

The bus started to increase its velocity once again and I watched as North America started to drift westward as we flew over the Atlantic Ocean. Soon after, the fuzzy border between day and night came into view, and my gaze fell towards the glimmering points of light that dotted the darkness, like glowworms on the ceiling of a cave or even the lights on a Christmas Tree. For a moment, I wasn't sure why the night side of Earth was dotted with light, but it didn't take me long to figure it out.

"Are those city lights?!" Wanda asked, amazed and bewildered.

"They sure are." Ms. Frizzle replied.

"We must be flying over Europe right now!" D.A. said. "Look!"

"Oh yeah, you're right!" Ralphie said. "I see London! And I can see France!"

"And we can see your underpants!" Carlos blurted, causing everyone including myself to laugh.

"Oh, shut up, Carlos!" Ralphie said.

"Hey! It was just a joke!"

"Now, now, class. Let's not get too carried away with crude humor." Ms. Frizzle said.

Carlos said nothing and drifted to another part of the bus. Janet had since drifted to another part of the bus to get a different view and Ralphie was now drifting to my spot by the window.

"Well, I must say Arnold, you really outdid yourself this time." he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Well, you saved the field trip for one. And two, you picked the right day to bring your cousin, even though she seems a bit obnoxious. I just wish Carlos would stop making jokes every time I say something."

"Well, to be fair, Ralphie, you did sort of walk into that one."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh, well. Nothing for it."

"He means well." I said. "Unlike some people I know…"

"Like your cousin?" Ralphie asked.

"I couldn't tell you for sure." I replied, remembering how happy she now was. "True, she may irritate me, but I'd like to think that she doesn't mean to be obnoxious to other people."

I abruptly changed the subject.

"Somehow, it doesn't feel like I saved the field trip." I said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, the Friz usually doesn't try to make field trips normal. Not only that, but after we discovered the planetarium was closed, she didn't even try to perform any magic to make the trip exciting like she usually does. Don't you think that's a little weird?"

"Well, now that you mention it, it does." Ralphie replied. "You think it might have something to do with your cousin being here?"

"Possibly. But it still doesn't fully explain why the Friz would deliberately take us on a normal trip. If she didn't want anyone to know about the bus's magic, she wouldn't have taken our class on so many weird trips in the first place."

"Well, whatever it is I'm sure the Friz had her reasons." Ralphie said. "She probably had this trip planned for us anyway, with or without Janet. Maybe to try and throw us off as an early April Fool's joke?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I said, remembering my earlier statements about the Friz's eccentric personality. "If that's the case, I sure fell for it. _Hard_."

Ralphie laughed at my comment, causing me to laugh in the process.

"Hey guys!" I heard Phoebe call out as she floated in our general direction.

"Hey, Phoebe!" I said.

"What brings you here?" Ralphie asked.

"I'm trying to get a better view of Earth, but everyone else was hogging the other windows. Janet, especially…"

 _Oh boy…_ I thought. _Maybe my earlier thoughts about my cousin were wrong._

"We'll share our window with you." Ralphie said. "We were just talking and stuff."

"Go ahead, Phoebe. It all yours." I said.

Phoebe smiled and gave a slight chuckle as her face blushed slightly. I smiled back, feeling my cheeks turn red and my heart race as I moved out of the window to let her by, not noticing the added swagger in my kind gesture.

"Thank you, Arnold." she said sweetly. I felt my face turn, if possible, even more red than before. I felt a slight nudge on my shoulder and turned around to see my best friend give me a suggestive smirk. I frowned. He'd obviously seen the whole thing happen while I wasn't looking.

"Arnold and Phoebe sitting in a tree…" Ralphie teased. "K-I-S-S-I-N…"

"Oh, shut up…" I said. "We're not a couple!"

"Not yet anyway…"

I shook my head and rolled my eyes as Ralphie chuckled and patted me on the back as any good friend would do to say that they were simply joking. Even if I wasn't willing enough to openly admit it, there was at least some truth to what he was saying (even though he was unaware of it). I did have a small crush on Phoebe, and it had become apparent enough for me to confidently say that she had a crush on me too. However, the prospect of her and I becoming a couple was still a long way off. We were still young children after all. Such a prospect would have to wait a few more years.

As the bus continued in its orbit about the Earth, I watched as the Sun passed behind the planet to create a bright orange halo as its light filtered through the thin atmosphere. It was perhaps the greatest sunset I had ever seen, reminding me all-too-well of that famous photograph of the crescent Earth taken by the Apollo astronauts. There were plenty more surprises to behold on night side of the planet, namely flashes of lightning over equatorial Africa where storms were brewing. Along the sparkling coasts of China and Japan, I could even see bright patches of aquamarine blue where whole swarms of plankton had illuminated the water with their odd bioluminescence. Even without the overpowering light coming from the world's cities, I'm sure aliens would have no problem determining the presence of life on Earth.

But perhaps the most striking sight were the glowing curtains of red, green, and blue light dancing around the north and south poles – the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis.

As I watched, I heard Ms. Frizzle explain their origin. Apparently, they were the result of super-charged electrons from the Sun's solar wind. colliding with the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. The electrons are then energized through acceleration processes in the downwind tail (night side) of Earth's magnetosphere and at lower altitudes along auroral field lines. The accelerated electrons follow the magnetic field of Earth down to the polar regions where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in Earth's upper atmosphere. Through these collisions, the electrons then transfer their energy to the atmosphere, thereby exciting the atoms and molecules to higher energy states. Once they relax back down to lower energy states, they release their energy in the form of light.

Somehow, I couldn't get the idea of Earth's Aurorae being a giant neon sign out of my mind after the Friz's collegiate explanation. Probably because I came to realize that it was essentially the same thing. I was completely and utterly dumbfounded.

"Isn't this amazing, class?" Ms. Frizzle asked.

"Amazing? It's out of this world!" I could hear Janet shout excitedly. I had to admit, she couldn't have said it any better.

"Oh, wonderful! Well, now that we've gotten a good look at our own planet, I think it's time we go and do some serious exploration!"

Ms. Frizzle floated back into the driver seat and pressed a small red button on the dash console, revealing a TV monitor that extended from the ceiling. I watched as an image started to form on the screen through fading static. Finally, the image was clear enough to reveal a map of the Solar System and a flashing yellow beacon marking our present location.

"Let the tour begin!" the Friz said. "First stop: _The Moon_!"

Everyone onboard cheered and celebrated. My fears, however strong they might have been, had become a thing of the past and were evaporating into pure excitement and joy. My nagging curiosities of the Friz's initial attempt to take us on a normal trip were pushed firmly to the back of my mind as the bus escaped Earth-orbit and I saw the unmistakable disk of the Moon appear through the front window, beckoning for us to approach.

Time to explore.

* * *

 **Hey everyone!**

 **I apologize for the rather long wait between chapters. I've just been busy with tons of other stuff, so it's been difficult trying to find time to continue writing. At the end of the first chapter, I had briefly mentioned the possibility of adding additional exploration of the Solar System. In the original episode, there was no mention or attempt to visit the Moon, given that it had to fit in a 30 minute slot, in addition to putting emphasis solely on the planets themselves. Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to do so here. What do you think? In any event, I hope to see you soon in the next chapter! :)**

 **Again, I do not own _The Magic School Bus_. All copyrights and trademarks belong to Scholastic, Inc., as well as any other respective owners I might have forgotten to mention.**

 **saturn95**


	3. From Earth to the Moon

**I do not own _The Magic School Bus_. All copyrights and trademarks belong to Scholastic, Inc., as well as all other respective owners.**

 **Anyway, without further ado, I bring you chapter 3!**

* * *

 **From Earth to the Moon**

* * *

The bus continued to soar through space like an eagle as we crossed the distance between Earth and the Moon in record time. I reckoned it had to have been just a couple of minutes since we took off from Earth. And yet, we were already almost to the limits of manned space exploration. By comparison, it had taken the _Apollo_ astronauts over three days to cross that same distance. Whatever magical substance Ms. Frizzle was using as fuel for the bus, it must have been high-quality stuff, hundreds of times more potent, perhaps, than standard rocket fuel. But then again, it was a _magic_ school bus, and it wasn't as if the Friz hadn't broken the laws of physics before. That happened on _every_ field trip. But this was taking it to a whole new level of mindboggling insanity, one of astronomical proportions I should add. Yet, at the same time, I found it to be equally amazing and exciting to be travelling to a place where only a handful of people have been in the entirety of recorded history.

As we approached, I almost thought we were going to crash. The bus was going so fast that I had to resist the urge to heave at the sight of the Moon hurtling towards me at frightening speed. It took an immeasurable amount of effort, but I prevailed just as the bus slowed back down to a more reasonable speed, my nerves once again assuring me that I was safe.

"Here we are, class!" Ms. Frizzle shouted.

"Wow! It's much bigger than I thought would be." Tim said.

"It's actually pretty large if you consider how big the Earth is." Ms. Frizzle replied. "In fact, the Moon is about a quarter the size of the Earth."

"Then why does it appear so small in our sky?" Wanda asked.

"Because it orbits pretty far from the Earth." the Friz replied. "As a matter of fact, we're now about a quarter of a million miles from where we started our journey."

Did I just hear that right? A quarter of a _million_ miles in under two minutes? Now _that_ is incredible timing! I could only imagine what the speedometer on the bus's dashboard would read at that rate of speed.

"Granted that we may be very far from home, we've actually barely left." Ms. Frizzle continued. "Under normal circumstances, it would take us years, perhaps decades, to travel through the entire Solar System. But thankfully, we have a magic bus to help us with that. It should only take us only a matter of hours to complete our tour."

 _Thank goodness!_ I thought to myself. The thought of missing dinner with my family for the rest of my life was not very high on my list of priorities. However, if the sight of the Moon through the window was anything to go by, the thought of seeing all the planets up-close set the gears of my imagination on full motion.

My initial pre-fieldtrip cursory examinations of the Moon from Earth were always welcoming on clear nights. The monthly cycle of the Moon's phases always ran like clockwork, and the dark and bright patches seemed to form peculiar, yet familiar patterns. There was, of course, the infamous "Man in the Moon" pattern, which a lot people seem to have a hard time finding. If one night you happen to look closely at the center of the full Moon, you should be able to see him gazing "skyward" at a bright dot that could be interpreted as a star against a dark sky. The bright dot in question is in fact the outline of a crater called Copernicus, named for the astronomer who, in the sixteenth century, correctly theorized that the Solar System was heliocentric rather than geocentric. Personally, I always thought of the dark patterns on the Moon as the outlines of both an angel and a small dog, with the winged figure on the left reaching out to pet the animal on the right.

Up close, the Moon took on a completely different appearance. It was no longer just a bright grayish silver disk, but an actual _world_. The dark gray patches I had so keenly interpreted like abstract art appeared to be flat compared to the surrounding brighter regions. By contrast, these regions were very mountainous and casted crisp, unblurred shadows across the lunar surface. But perhaps most striking of all was the sheer number of craters that dotted the entire landscape. Some craters were many miles wide and had shallow basins, suggesting that they must have been formed a very long time ago. Most of the smaller craters appeared to be fresh, with deep basins and bright, dusty rays extending from their rims for miles. To me, it was almost looking down on a desolate, war-torn battlefield. Given the barren, cratered nature of Earth's only natural satellite, the analogy seemed to fit perfectly. There were no bright patches of color to be seen anywhere on the Moon's surface; just an overall stark, utilitarian gray hue that could be matched if one mixed black gun powder with white chalk dust. Nevertheless, it was a very fascinating sight to behold, one of many that still stick with me to this day. Overall, it was, in a word, _alien_.

Speaking of aliens…

"Man, the aliens on the Moon sure make big footprints!" I heard Ralphie say just to my right.

"Nothing can live on the Moon, Ralphie." Keesha replied. "There's no breathable air and no water."

"As a matter of fact, there's no air at all," Ms. Frizzle added, "which makes it _extremely_ difficult to breathe."

"Well, something had to make tracks that big…"

"Something did, Ralphie. A meteorite!" I heard Janet shout from the other side of the bus. "Lots of them, actually. Meteorites are pieces of stone or iron that fall from space…"

"And, according to my research," D.A. said, "meteorites aren't called _meteorites_ until they reach the surface of a planet or moon, if they reach the surface. Before they ever get caught by a planet's or moon's gravity they're called _meteoroids_. And, if they fall towards a planet with an atmosphere, like Earth, and burn up as they fall, they're called _meteors_."

"Very good, D.A.!" said Ms. Frizzle with an appreciative smile. "Someone has done their homework, as usual."

I looked over to my cousin, who was looking over in D.A.'s direction with faint disapproval. For a moment, Janet had been beaten in her nonexistent game of knowledge between her and the rest of us kids, and it bothered her… _a lot_. I glanced back over at D.A. Apparently, she could sense Janet's sudden bewilderment just as well as I could, for her smile had vanished as quickly as a camera flash just as her and my cousin looked at each other eye-to-eye. I had the growing premonition that a feud was beginning to brew between them, but it was too early to make such presumptions.

"Here's a question." Carlos said. "If the ones that hit the planet are called _meteorites_ , what do you call the ones that miss?"

"What?" Keesha asked.

" _Meteor-WRONGS_!"

Everyone onboard laughed. As I already mentioned, if there was one thing that I could count on Carlos to do, it was to lighten the mood with comedy. Even if the overall mood was already optimistic, his ability to bring everyone into better spirits was no less effective. My cousin, on the other hand, obviously had the opposite effect. Still, it didn't stop me or any of my classmates from enjoying the sight of the Moon through my window.

"Alright, class! Get ready to buckle your seat belts!" I heard Ms. Frizzle say. "We're going in for a closer look!"

"We're landing!" I heard someone say with excitement.

"Well, of course!" Ms. Frizzle said.

I floated back to my seat and buckled myself in as the bus slowly began to descend towards the lunar surface. As we approached, I felt the sensation of gravity return to my body, though it wasn't nearly as strong as it was back on Earth. I felt the bus lean backwards just as it had when we first took off, and the vibrations of the rockets as they fought against the puny lunar gravity to ease our landing. Despite my nagging fear of heights, I managed to catch a glimpse of the view outside as the bus came for a soft landing. For a moment, my mind wandered back to the old _Apollo_ footage of the lunar model making its first historic landing as gray dust got kicked up by the rockets. I heard a thud shortly thereafter, after which I felt the bus lean forward until the front end hit the ground with a much louder thud. Then, everything went silent as the engine idled itself off and Ms. Frizzle stepped up from the wheel to open the door.

"Here we are, class!" she said. "We are now on the surface of the Moon! Besides the scenery, does anyone notice anything different?"

"We hardly weigh anything here compared to my old planet, Earth!" I heard Phoebe say my left.

"I wonder if that means there's less gravity pulling on us here." Keesha said, going off Phoebe's observation. Ms. Frizzle smiled.

"Exactly, Keesha! Good thinking! As a matter of fact, the gravity here is only about one-sixth as strong as it is on Earth."

That was when I noticed Liz standing next to the door leading outside. Apparently, I had been too preoccupied to notice that the comical lizard, now sporting her own customized spacesuit, was still onboard. She was evidently eager to go outside and jump around the lunar surface, like a child waiting anxiously to ride the carousel at the annual carnival. To tell the truth, I couldn't wait to experience the Moon for myself either.

"Does everyone have their space helmets?" Ms. Frizzle asked. "It's very important that we don't wander on any alien world without this protection. Since the Moon has no atmosphere of any kind, we'll need these and our suits to keep ourselves safe. Your suits are also equipped with a heating and cooling system, oxygen supply, as well as a radio for easy communication throughout this field trip, that way in case any of us get separated, we'll be able to reach out to each other. But let's not wander too far. No one wants to get _lost_ , right?"

 _You'd be right about that_. I thought to myself.

"Now, who's ready to do some exploring?"

Everyone, including myself, raised their hands. By now, we all had our helmets on and were talking through our radios.

"Great! Let's go!"

Ms. Frizzle reached for a button on the consoleand pressed it, causing the ever-merciful door to slide open once the air inside the bus had presumably been sucked out and stored into long-term storage until we returned. The entire bus had become an airlock. Once the door was open, Liz was the first exit the bus, her tiny lizard body bouncing almost uncontrollably across the gray landscape. Ms. Frizzle followed.

"Come on, class! Follow the bouncing lizard!"

Everyone laughed. If that mental image wasn't fit for a great children's comic, nothing was. I could only imagine seeing Liz in a cartoon bouncing comically on the Moon by her tail.

"Come on, Arnold!" I heard Janet yell from the door. "Let's go!"

Let me tell you, trying to _walk_ in lunar gravity was next to impossible. I attempted to make my way down the aisle, only to trip and fall forwards as I reached for the exit. My body felt so light that it took very little effort to move any of my limbs. Even raising my arms ever so slightly seemed to throw my balance off, but at least I wasn't the only kid having problems to the sudden change of gravity. I reckoned I had to have weighed no more than fourteen pounds on the Moon, given that I was about eighty-five pounds back on Earth at that time.

Ralphie had fallen on his side a few feet away from the door, kicking up a cloud of chalky gray dust as he landed, and Phoebe tripped on a pebble as she followed behind, falling to the ground next to me. I tried to ignore the undeniable intimacy, especially with Ralphie looking back in my direction, but it was very hard to do so. Nevertheless, I was able to get back on my feet and help Phoebe to hers by reaching my hand out to grab her hand. Phoebe smiled from my generosity.

"Thank you, Arnold." Phoebe said. I felt my face blush once more as I smiled back.

"You're welcome." I said, turning my head to see Ralphie look back at me with that signature smirk of his once more.

"It seems we're having a bit of a problem walking, yes?" Ms. Frizzle echoed through the static. "Not to worry, class. As my friend Neil Armstrong might say, the best way of getting around on the Moon is by hopping. Give it a try! It's easier, and lots of fun too!"

I watched the Friz as she continued to jump across the lunar surface like a certain Italian plumber from a certain game that me and Ralphie played on our weekends off. Apparently, Ralphie had the same idea as he looked over to me with a challenging smile.

"You'll never catch me, pesky plumber!" Ralphie said to me in a low, raspy-sounding voice. I smiled and cleared my throat before replying in my best-sounding Italian accent, which wasn't too great, but it was convincing enough for a good set of laughs.

"I swear, Bowser. If you kidnap the princess again, you'll never hear the end of it!"

We laughed as we started to bounce our way across the surface. Ralphie supplied some random fire sounds as he turned towards me, throwing a pinch of moon dust at me to imitate fire breathing out of his mouth. I managed to avoid his surprise attack by jumping _over_ the cloud of dust and somehow managed a surprisingly graceful somersault before landing back on the ground. I was never this acrobatic back on Earth. It seemed that Ms. Frizzle was right. Jumping on the Moon _was_ easier than walking. The only thing missing was a trampoline.

Carlos and D.A. were nearby as I completed my unexpected maneuver. They both appeared as surprised as I was.

"That was one heck of a jump there, Arnold!" Carlos said. "How did you do it?"

"To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea." I said. "There's no way I could do that back home, that's for sure."

"Well, I can tell what you guys like to do in your free time!" D.A. chuckled.

"What?" Ralphie said.

"Don't tell me you guys aren't pretending to be Mario and Bowser."

"I'm surprised you even know about video games in the first place." Ralphie replied. "With you buried in your books and all…"

"Touché. But I will have you know that I have dabbled in and out of the practice of playing video games when I don't have my books around."

"That's a challenge if I ever heard one!"

"Hey, I have an idea!" Carlos said. "Why don't we have a jumping contest?"

"Oh hey, yeah! That sounds like fun!" D.A. said.

"A _lunar_ jumping contest that is!"

Carlos turned towards her with a challenging smile.

"I bet I can jump higher than you, Dorothy Ann!" he said.

"Oh, really? What makes you think so?"

"Oh, I know so."

"You're on!"

" _Did someone say a jumping contest_?"

Oh great. Here we go again.

"I won first place in my class jumping contest." Janet bragged as she hopped toward us. "I have a blue ribbon to prove it."

"Why don't you join us then?" Carlos asked. "That way we can seefor ourselves how great of a jumper you are."

"With pleasure!" she replied as her and Carlos and D.A. launched themselves a good fifteen feet off the ground. A could only imagine the smug expression on Janet's face as she barely managed to surpass D.A.'s jump by a few inches. She had to make up for her supposed lack of knowledge on meteorites somehow.

"Wow, you do jump pretty high." Carlos said.

"You weren't kidding." D.A. replied. "Nice!"

"Wait until I tell my class I won a jumping contest on the Moon too!" Janet replied.

"But you know what they're going to say, right?" Carlos asked.

"What?"

" _Prove it!_ " both Carlos and D.A. replied in unison.

Janet froze and became quiet, with nothing but the look of pure horror on her face to describe her sudden dilemma. I knew it had to have been unimaginably tough for her to hear someone tell her to prove something of herself, especially if it involved winning a jumping contest on the Moon. For me, it was too ironic to go unnoticed. Either she somehow proved that she was in fact on the Moon, or she went back home only to have her classmates laugh at her and say she was crazy. After all, it wasn't as if she could just take a medal or trophy back to Earth as proof.

"I think your cousin Arnold has all of us beat with his somersault." D.A. added. "Didn't you see? It was amazing!"

"Yeah, I saw..." Janet said, looking over to me and Ralphie. I hate being put on the spot, especially if I'm being stared down by my cousin.

"I don't know how I did it." I said. "Honestly."

"Oh sure, Arnold…" Janet replied sarcastically as she started frantically bouncing to a nearby hill, muttering to herself as if looking for a chest of gold coins.

"How on Earth… I mean… How am I going to prove I was on the Moon?!" I heard her say under her own breath.

Ralphie and I looked at each other.

"I wonder what the others are doing?" Ralphie asked.

"Want to go find out?" I asked.

"Sure!"

"We'll catch up to you guys!" D.A. called out to us.

"Alright!" I replied, not even taking a second glance back at Janet. She was too preoccupied anyway.

As Ralphie and I hopped towards Ms. Frizzle and the rest of our classmates, I took note of the Sun against the black sky. It was odd. Even though I knew we had landed on the day side of the Moon, it felt more like I was walking through an indoor studio where the walls had been painted black and the only source of illumination was an incredibly bright spotlight. I could even barely make out other stars against the inky blackness, but since there was no atmosphere on the Moon, none of the stars appeared to twinkle as they did back home. But that wasn't the only thing I saw.

Looking to the left of the bright Sun about halfway down to the horizon, I saw the brilliant blue outline of the crescent Earth. Even from a quarter of a million miles, it was humbling to see my home planet grace the sky with its blue oceans, multicolored continents, and swirling white clouds. I could only imagine what such a sight would look like during the lunar nights. With Earth appearing four times larger in the sky than the Moon as seen from home, it would have to be very bright during the night, casting ghoulish shadows and tinting the lunar landscape with an eerie bluish hue as it remained suspended against a sky with a billion unwinking stars. But even as I looked up, the Earth was still remarkably bright and beautiful, and it was only then that I remembered what the Friz had said earlier.

I felt my chest tighten.

Even in the company of my teacher and classmates, I suddenly felt very lonely. There were billions of people on that blue marble, along with millions of other species of life, all huddled together up there and having the party of a lifetime. Yet here I was, looking back on it all from a small, dull-gray, and desolate world that was so removed from life as to be a crematorium overrun with the ashes of dead souls. Even with such mindboggling and seemingly depressing thoughts, I couldn't help but smile at the thought that I could now simply blot out all of humanity by holding out my right thumb.

Ralphie and I continued bouncing until we were able to catch up with the others. They appeared to be standing next to the edge of a large crater. Come to think of it, there were craters _everywhere_. Even as I glanced onto the dusty ground, I could even see tiny craters that were as little as an inch in diameter. It seemed that having no atmosphere hasn't stopped even tiny micrometeorites from reaching the lunar surface.

"Hey Arnold! Hey Ralphie!" I heard Tim call out.

"Hey Tim!" I said as we approached. "What's going on?"

"Not much, just getting inspiration for my next drawing." He replied. "Have you seen the Earth from here yet?"

"Yeah, its really cool!" I said.

"I should have brought my camera." Ralphie said.

"Lovely, isn't it?" Ms. Frizzle said as she approached us.

"I have a question, Ms. Frizzle." I said, remembering a thought that had been nagging at my brain since we arrived. "Why is it that we only see one side of the Moon back on Earth?"

"That's an excellent question, Arnold!" she replied. "The reason why we only see one side of the Moon is because the Moon is, what many astronomers say, 'tidally locked', meaning that it rotates at the same rate as it revolves around the Earth. The combined motions make it appear as though the Moon doesn't move much, even though it is also constantly rotating as it revolves."

"How long does it take for the Moon to orbit the Earth?" Phoebe asked.

"It takes the Moon approximately twenty-seven Earth days to go around Earth relative to the stars." Ms. Frizzle said. "This is its 'sidereal period'. However, because Earth is moving in its orbit around the Sun at the same time, it takes slightly longer for the Moon to show the same phase to Earth, which is about twenty-nine and a half days. This is its 'synodic period'."

"So, let me get this straight…" Wanda said. "The sidereal period is the _actual_ time it takes for a planet or moon to rotate or revolve using the stars for reference, and the synodic period is the time it takes for a planet or moon to do the same thing based on the Sun's position?"

"That's right, Wanda." The Friz said. "It's a little confusing, and something not normally taught to third grade students, but rest assured that when we're talking about a planet's revolution around the Sun, its always in sidereal terms."

Ms. Frizzle smiled. "Here's an interesting fact, the length of a month back on Earth is based on, and almost identical, to the length of one synodic lunar revolution. In fact, the word _month_ comes from the Old English _Mona_ , which translates to 'Moon'. So, for the most part, our calendars on Earth are broken into twelve _months_ , or approximately twelve synodic lunar revolutions with a few extra days to spare."

"I never knew that." Keesha said. "That's very interesting!"

"Also, have you ever wondered why our weeks are seven days long?" Ms. Frizzle asked. "Well, it once again boils back to the phases of the Moon. The Babylonians, which were an ancient society in Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq, took note of the Moon's twenty-nine and half day synodic period, and decided it was too long of a time span to organize their daily lives. They decided to round the Moon cycle down to twenty-eight days and divided this time span into four periods of seven days each and used leap days to stay in synch with the phases of the Moon over the long run. But it was the Romans that first introduced a system where each day of the week was named after one of their pagan gods, each of whom was associated with one of the seven classical planets. When I say the classical planets, I'm talking about the celestial bodies in our Solar System known to humanity since prehistoric times, which include the Sun and the Moon."

"So, the names of each day of the week were named after the Sun, the Moon, and five other planets?" Ralphie asked.

"Precisely!" said the Friz. "In most Latin-based languages, the names of the weekdays still reveal this connection to the classical planets. However, in most cases, the Roman deities have been replaced by their Norse or Germanic equivalents. Sunday is, of course, named for the Sun, and Monday, which is today, is named for the Moon. Tuesday is named for Mars, Wednesday for Mercury, Thursday for Jupiter, Friday for Venus, and finally, Saturday for Saturn."

"Wow! I never realized how much our calendar was influenced by astronomy!" I heard Phoebe say as the rest of the class finally caught up.

"It's really amazing to think that space has had such a major influence on our lives, whether we realize it or not." Ms. Frizzle said. "If it weren't for our overwhelming curiosity about our Universe, we wouldn't be here on the Moon talking about it."

"Speaking of the Moon." I heard Carlos say. "Why are there so many craters here? And why does Earth hardly have any?"

"There's no atmosphere here, Carlos." Janet said. "Therefore, there's nothing to burn the meteorites up before they crash."

I already figured that one out.

"Right, Janet." Ms. Frizzle said. "As hinted earlier, the Moon is covered by craters for that very reason. No atmosphere means that there's no wind, rain, or any natural forces, such as erosion, to wipe away any evidence of heavy bombardment, let alone burn up any space debris as they fall towards the surface. Most of the larger craters on the Moon were formed millions and even billions of years ago during an early period in the Solar System's history when collisions with asteroids and comets were rampant. On Earth, the few craters that remain were formed very recently and almost all the older craters have since been eroded away or filled with water to form lakes. In addition to the presence of an atmosphere and weather, Earth also has volcanism and plate tectonics which constantly shift and renew its surface, making it virtually impossible to preserve a cratered surface. But the Moon doesn't have such volcanic activity. That's because the Moon is much smaller and less massive than Earth, which made its core cool off long ago, leaving behind a dead world prone to permanent new crater formation, not to mention exposure to large amounts of harmful radiation from the Sun."

I could listen to the Friz's lectures for hours. True, I may not have enjoyed school that much (at least in the traditional sense), but I was always curious about stuff, and Ms. Frizzle always made things exciting, with or without a magic school bus. As I mentioned earlier, she left no question unanswered and no answer to any question was too generic or limited to a basic set of knowledge that kids our age _had_ to know based on an artificial, bare-bones, clear-cut, and often boring curriculum. The Friz always went above and beyond, teaching us things that could be taught at a university full of young adults. She was a true encyclopedia of knowledge, and the last few minutes were a perfect testament of that fact.

"Take a look at this huge crater, class!" she said as we all looked out into the distance. The crater was so large that I had trouble seeing the other side. I reckoned it had to have been at least twenty miles wide, for it was almost like peering over the edge of a tall cliff and overlooking a valley rather than a huge hole in the ground. Beyond the crater's boundary, I could also see tall hills and mountains in the distance, as well as other smaller craters dot the landscape.

"Ms. Frizzle?" Carlos suddenly asked.

"Yes, Carlos?"

"You know the footprints on the Moon that were left by our astronauts? Well, are the footprints still there, since there's no wind?"

"They most certainly are, Carlos." Ms. Frizzle replied. "Fresh as if they were made yesterday. Even as we navigate around, _our_ footprints will remain here on the Moon for a very long time as well. Thousands, or even millions of _years_ as a matter of fact."

The very thought scared me.

There have been many field trips with the Friz that I can recall where the risk of our class getting into a world of trouble were far too great for comfort, especially if it involved crossing over into other countries without a passport. But the very thought of writing _Arnold was here_ in the lunar dust, as tempting as it may have been, was also enough to send chills of foreboding down my spine. What if the astronauts of the future land on the Moon and stumble across our tracks? Even the tire marks of the bus would be more than enough to cause great suspicion. Not only that, but given the current state of world politics, arguments and accusations would certainly break out between opposing nations upon discovering our footprints in the gray sand, as well as raise all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories. Was Ms. Frizzle crazy enough to take that chance?

"But don't worry, class. No one will ever know we were here once we leave."

No.

"I'll cover our tracks with one of my special magic tricks." she added, as if addressing my inner concerns.

 _Magic_. Of course.

I was relieved. Any thoughts or concerns I had of leaving behind too much evidence for future explorers quickly vanished in a flash of renewed excitement.

* * *

We were on the Moon for about twenty minutes by the time we started making our way back to the bus. During that time, we jumped around, played, and eagerly explored the nearby landscape, searching for a rock sample that we could take home with us. While I was exploring, I was suddenly taken aback by the sight of what looked like _orange soil_ lurking in a nearby crater. Surely the Moon didn't have any hint of color on its surface, but I hadn't imagined it. I showed the orange patch to Ms. Frizzle and she was astonished. She told me that a similar patch of orange lunar soil was found by _Apollo 17_ astronaut Harrison Schmitt when he explored Shorty Crater back in the early '70s. She also said that the orange hue was probably suggestive of ancient volcanic activity rather than an asteroid impact, something that hasn't happened on the Moon for _billions_ of years. The texture of the dust felt weird in my hands, being that it was composed of very fine zinc-rich silt-like particles.

Wasting no time, I took one of the sample bags graciously supplied by Ms. Frizzle and scooped up some of the orange dust into it before sealing it tight to prevent any air from getting into it once back on Earth. According to Ms. Frizzle, moon rocks and dust are more chemically reactive to air than Earth rocks and would quickly (relatively speaking) oxidize from the exposure. That was why the bags were vacuum sealable. Even a small leak of air would be enough to damage the sample. As an afterthought, I took another small vacuum bag and placed a very curious-looking rock and a handful of regular lunar dust and pebbles into it before placing both of my lunar souvenirs into the relative safety of my spacesuit's convenient, if limited, storage compartment.

Hey, it never hurts to have a bit of variety.

As I followed my classmates back to the bus, I saw my cousin carrying what looked like a huge rock with tiny crystals in it. It reminded me all-too-much of the granite rock found back on Earth, but it was also quite alien-looking enough for it to be of lunar origin.

"Hey, cous! Look what I found!" Janet said as I approached. "This rock will definitely _prove_ that I was on the Moon!"

"Pretty cool, Janet." I said. "But good luck trying to lift it when we get back on Earth."

"Oh, Arnold. Give me a break! It's not _that_ heavy!" she said.

As we climbed back on the bus and the door closed, air returned to the interior of the vehicle and we could take our helmets off. I found a seat next to Ralphie and Phoebe, while my cousin returned to the seat she originally sat in with D.A. in the opposite seat from her. If there was any building tension between the two of them, it was starting to become apparent, more so with my cousin than with D.A. since she was the aggressor. Even Carlos was quick to catch on.

"I think your cousin doesn't like being next to D.A." he whispered in my ear. "You saw the way she looked at us when we told her to _prove_ herself to _her_ classmates, didn't you?"

"Yeah." I said. "I think it's because she sees D.A. as a threat when it comes to who has the most knowledge."

"You think so?" Ralphie asked.

"I'm pretty sure." I replied. "I mean, why else would my cousin be acting the way she is?"

"I guess you have a point there." Carlos said.

Our conversation was immediately cut short.

"Everyone have their seatbelts on?" Ms. Frizzle asked. "Good! Here we go, class! Off to our next destination!"

The rockets rumbled once more, and I once again felt the bus ready itself into its launching position. There was no dramatic countdown this time and there was no dramatic transformation of the bus, but the launch was still the same. Even in lower gravity, I once again felt myself being forced back into chair as the bus rose higher into space. With no atmosphere to bother with, the sounds of the rockets were virtually nonexistent, with only their vibrations to suggest their presence.

The sensation of weightlessness returned as I looked out the window and saw the Moon shrink back into a large gray crater-covered globe. Before I could even register the change, we were circling around the far side of the Moon and once again saw the blue marble of Earth proudly ornamenting the otherwise plain background of space. Then, I watched as both the Moon and Earth started to move away from us at high velocity and grow smaller… and smaller. Subsequently, they became so small that I could now barely make them out against the stars. We were now going even faster than we were before… and farther… _much_ farther.

"We have now left the vicinity of Earth and going where no other human has yet explored!" I could hear the Friz say over the intercom. "We were now travelling through interplanetary space!"

I glanced up at the map of the Solar System above the main console and watched as the blinking light marking our current position left Earth's orbit and was headed towards a large yellow dot situated in the middle of the screen. That's when I noticed things we're getting bright inside the bus. _Very_ bright.

"Hold on tight, class!" Ms. Frizzle shouted. We're coming up to _the Sun_!"

* * *

 **Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait time between updates. Hopefully this update was worth the wait.**

 **There are a couple of main differences I want to point out. Most of the original dialogue that was featured in this chapter from the original TV show was originally featured on Mercury, such as the moment when Janet decided she needed to prove herself to her classmates that she went into space by bringing back as much stuff as she could. But with the Moon being first on their list of stops, coupled with the fact that the TV show was based off the book series, I thought it would make more sense to feature it here instead. The book series also featured the Moon as the first stop on their tour and even featured the infamous jumping contest and Janet bragging about it there too.**

 **The other difference I wanted to make apparent was the growing rivalry between Janet and D.A. This was something I decided to add into the story simply because the idea fascinated me. I always thought that their personalities were like oil and water, despite both being at the tops of their classes. Combined with the fact that D.A. is sometimes argumentative, I could imagine that a fight between Janet and D.A. is imminent. But we'll see what happens.**

 **Anyway, I hope to see you in the next chapter! See you then :)**

 **saturn95**

 **I do not own _The Magic School Bus_. All copyrights and trademarks belong to Scholastic, Inc., as well as all other respective owners.**


	4. Around the Sun

**At last, chapter 4 has arrived!**

 **The usual disclaimers still apply (as they should): I don't own Magic School Bus. All rights belong to Scholastic, Inc.**

* * *

 **Around the Sun**

* * *

You know that level in Super Mario Bros. 3 where the Sun tries to kill you? Well, that's not exactly how being up close to the Sun was, but it reminded me of that all-too-famous part of the game for some reason. Perhaps it was because I thought I was going to go blind from the sheer brightness of the light that was shining into my face. Thank goodness the windows had already been tinted. But even then, the light from the Sun shone red through my closed eyelids and made me long for glasses with Transitions lenses. But Ms. Frizzle had better ideas.

"Class? Are you all wearing your special heavy-duty Sunblock Eight-Thousand Sun Goggles?"

 _Special heavy-duty_ what _?_ I thought. My confusion lasted for a few moments before I realized there was a pair of rather stylish sunglasses hanging from the back of the seat in front of me. Without giving it a second thought, I grabbed the glasses and placed them on my head. The glasses themselves, it seemed, were nothing more than shades that people back on Earth use to safely view solar eclipses, but with the added perk of having a sleek designer look worn only by those who likely had no problem paying hundreds of dollars for a pair of sunglasses. Nevertheless, I was grateful that the intense glare from the Sun that had nearly blinded me had all but disappeared. Instead, the glasses gave me a view like none that could have ever imagined.

"Look how huge it is!" I heard Tim shout from the front of the bus.

"Take a look, class!" Ms. Frizzle. "This is the Sun in all its mesmerizing splendor! Our light, our lives, and everything we do back on Earth is controlled by and depends on it. It's no wonder that ancient peoples revered it as a god. To the Greeks, it was the god Helios, riding his golden chariot across the sky. And to the Egyptians, it was the god Ra, reborn every day at the coming of dawn."

"Wow!" I heard Carlos say. "They were sure on to something, weren't they?"

"Indeed." Ms. Frizzle replied. "But not until now have we come to realize just how _awesome_ the Sun truly is. It's by far the biggest, brightest, and hottest object in our Solar System. Its gravity is what keeps the planets, asteroids, and comets in their orbits around it. And it's so massive – about ninety-nine-point nine percent of all the matter in our Solar System is contained here!"

"I wonder how many Earths would fit in the Sun…" Keesha said.

"Over a _million_." Ms. Frizzle replied. "Hold on to your goggles! We're going in for a closer look!"

"This is incredible!" Phoebe said.

Incredible as it was, it was also frightening. Being so close to a star could surely have detrimental effects if one gets too close without proper protection. Nevertheless, I couldn't keep my protected eyes away from the unbelievable sights. The whole surface of the Sun, being a bright yellow through my efficient light-filtering shades, seemed to bubble and erupt like a never-ending explosion. Giant loops of plasma and superheated gas stretched far out into space, twisting and bending into strange abstract shapes that seemed to flow outwards into space like a giant tsunami, and then fall back onto the glowing surface like giant feathers. I could only pray that the bus wouldn't be subject to getting engulfed by a large wall of superheated plasma, the very thought making me wish I stayed home that day (among other things, of course). I squinted, making out dark spots on its surface. Even though they appeared dark through my sun goggles, I could only imagine that they must have been at least ten times brighter than the full Moon. Even with the bus's incredible heat shield, I could feel sweat develop on my forehead. The heat being emanated from the Sun was phenomenal.

"Ms. Frizzle?" I asked.

"Yes, Arnold?"

"How hot is the Sun?"

"Well, Arnold it depends on which part of the Sun you measure its temperature. The surface of the Sun is usually around ten-thousand degrees Fahrenheit. I say _usually_ , because it can vary. See those dark spots on the surface?"

"Yes."

"Those are called sunspots. They're giant magnetic storms that erupt on the Sun's surface and are darker and cooler than the rest of the Sun. They're as large as several Earths and are usually around seven thousand degrees Fahrenheit. But at the center of the Sun, the temperature can reach as high as twenty-seven _million_ degrees Fahrenheit! This is due to the immense pressure generated by the Sun's enormous gravity, which is almost twenty-eight times greater than Earth's. This, combined with its staggering mass, produces the enormous heat, which is enough to compress hydrogen atoms together into larger helium atoms. With each of these atomic collisions, some mass is lost in the form of light energy. This is called nuclear fusion, and it's the very reason why the Sun, and every other star in the universe, shines."

"So, let me get this straight." Ralphie said. "The Sun is being powered by nuclear fusion. Hydrogen is being fused into helium, the same gas that they use in balloons back on Earth?"

"Yes, exactly." Ms. Frizzle said. "In fact, helium was discovered on the Sun before it was ever found on Earth."

"How is that even possible if no one has ever been to the Sun?" Wanda asked.

"I'm glad you asked, Wanda! The discovery of helium was made by a process called spectroscopy. Spectroscopy is basically a fancy term for determining an object's chemical composition from the light or reflected light it generated. Light is first split into colors using a prism. Certain elements leave different patterns of light and dark lines in the spectrum, which means that by looking at these patterns, one can deduce a planet's or star's chemical makeup. For the Sun, when we look at its spectrum, we can tell that it is made primarily of hydrogen, about ninety-two percent. The rest is mainly helium, with small amounts of other elements and compounds."

"So, going back to nuclear fusion," Phoebe said, "how much energy is produced in the Sun?"

"Whoa! Great question, Phoebe!" Ms. Frizzle said. "Believe it or not, about six hundred million tons of hydrogen are fused into helium and every second, converting four million tons of matter into energy as a result. In Watts, this would translate to about thirty-eight thousand four-hundred-sixty _septillion_ Watts every second!"

"How big is that?" Phoebe asked.

"It is _unimaginably_ big. Let's talk numbers for a second. You know about large numbers like a hundred, a thousand, a million, and a billion. Well beyond the billions is the trillions, and then after that is quadrillions. Then we have quintillions followed by sextillions and then finally septillions. Nothing within our daily lives can allow us to comprehend such large numbers…"

"I'll say." Carlos replied. "I'd hate to be the person that pays the Sun's power bill…"

"What do you know about paying power bills, Carlos?" D.A. asked in a laughing tone.

"Nothing. I just know that there's no way anyone could use that much power in one second."

"I doubt even _all_ of the power used back on Earth in one _year_ doesn't even come close to how much the Sun uses in one _second_." I heard Janet say with utter confidence. "Would that be right, Ms. Frizzle?"

"That's right, Janet. As a matter of fact, the amount of energy being produced per second in the Sun's core is equivalent to about ninety-two _billion_ megatons of TNT!"

Now _that_ was a scary thought. It's amazing how facts like that can stick in one's mind after so many years. Looking back on it now in my adulthood, it seems even more scary when comparing it to the _Tsar Bomba_ , the most powerful thermonuclear bomb ever built by Man. One would need about 1,820,000,000 Tsar Bombas to match the total energy production at the Sun's core in one second. That is _insane_. It seemed that my initial impression of the Sun being a giant seemingly never-ending explosion was right after all. Surely that kind of energy production can't be sustainable. Can it?

"It's been doing that for at least four and a half billion years." Ms. Frizzle went on. "And it's likely it will continue to do so for at least another five billion years."

Dang…How wrong I was.

"And, according to my research, the light energy produced in the Sun's core can take anywhere from ten thousand to one-hundred-seventy thousand years to make its way to the Sun's surface due to the enormous pressures exerted by the its outer layers." D.A. read from one of her many books. "It says here that once light leaves the Sun's surface, it takes only about eight minutes to travel the ninety-three-million-mile distance to Earth. This means that the light reaching the Earth today was produced when wooly mammoths were still present on its surface during the last ice age!"

"Wow! So, when one says they're going outside to get some _fresh_ air," Carlos said, "is it also correct that they can say that they're getting _stale_ sunlight?"

Ms. Frizzle and everyone else onboard laughed at Carlos' remark. Even D.A. managed a chuckle, despite her trying to be serious.

"Yes, Carlos…" she said.

Always leave it to Carlos to make a silly joke.

"Well, class. I think we should carry on to our next destination." the Friz said. "There's still a lot more to see on this grand tour of the Solar System!"

"So, we've already travelled almost ninety-three million miles from where we started?" Tim asked.

"That's right Tim."

"At my old school, we learned that light was the fastest thing in the Universe." Phoebe asked. "How were we able to get here so fast?"

"When you have a magic bus, anything is possible!" Ms. Frizzle replied with a smile. "Strap yourselves in, class! We're about to shoot ourselves around the Sun!"

"Wait, wha…?"

But before I could complete my sentence, everyone else was already floating back to their seats just as the bus started to gain momentum once more. I was lucky enough to find an unoccupied window seat and strapped myself in while ensuring that my SPF 8000 whatever-they-were-called sun goggles were firmly attached to my head. The bus was once again travelling at unimaginable speeds, and I watched as the Sun began to move before me. But suddenly, just as I thought things were crazy enough already, a bright flash of light down on the Sun's surface caught my eye. It was spitting out superheated gas and plasma out into space – in our direction. I began to panic as the steady stream of plasma started encroaching on the bus at frightening speed.

"Ms. Frizzle! Watch out!" I shouted.

"Hold on, class!" Ms. Frizzle called out as she yanked the steering wheel and performed a crazy maneuver to avoid the oncoming threat. I felt myself getting forced into my seat as the bus suddenly jerked upward like a fast-moving roller coaster, causing me and everyone else onboard to wince and scream. Miraculously, I was brave enough to keep one eye open long enough to see that we had _barely_ made it out of harm's way, just as the bus settled back into a steady rhythm motion. All of us breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing that we were safe once again. I was breathing hard, trying to get a grip as my body began soothing me with endorphins to help calm me down. Maybe the Sun was trying to kill us after all…

"What was that?!" Wanda asked.

"Whatever it was, it almost got us!" Ralphie replied.

"That was a solar flare, class." Ms. Frizzle said. "They are sudden temporary outbursts of energy from a small area of the Sun's surface and usually occur when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. If this one was aimed at Earth, it would have disrupted radio communications and possibly cause blackouts worldwide."

"Well, we sure were lucky…" I managed to say.

"That was exciting, Arnold!" Janet said. "Don't tell me you got scared…"

"I wasn't scared!" I said, trying to make myself look brave.

"Sure, cous…"

I said nothing after that. Instead, I refocused my attention out the window. The Sun was beginning to retreat as the bus started to drift away from its blazing surface. Although we were now backing away from it, I kept my sun goggles on to keep from damaging my already slightly-impaired eyesight. Never in my life did I think that getting out of the Sun would such a good thing. Now, all I could think about was where the bus was headed next. As if sensing my inner ponderings, Ms. Frizzle was quick to address them.

"So, class. We've travelled from Earth, around the Sun, and now we're headed towards…"

"Mercury! The closest planet to the Sun!" Janet interrupted.

"Whoa, very good, Janet!" Ms. Frizzle said.

"My class is going to be so jealous!"

Sure enough, the television monitor showed the bus making its way towards a grayish-brown dot locating in the closest and tightest orbit that encircled the Sun. It was Mercury, alright. My excitement became apparent once more, realizing that we'd be on a totally different planet and not just on the Moon. What would we find there?

The only thing I could do was guess.

* * *

 **Hey everyone!**

 **Sorry for the long wait. This chapter ended up being shorter than the other ones and there isn't too much character dynamics going on here, but that will certainly change once the class reaches Mercury. This is merely a transitional chapter.**

 **For every chapter thus far, I've tried to include some interesting facts about each celestial object that the class travels to, most of which were not in the original episode. Space is a subject that I'm really passionate about, so I can't help but go on small tangents about it. At the same time, I try to keep it to a certain level, so as not to take away from the actual story. Let me know what you think!**

 **In the meantime, Arnold and the rest of his class are now about to begin their exploration of the other terrestrial planets. See you then!**

 **saturn95**


	5. Baking Under the Sun on Mercury

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. I finally bring you chapter 5! I do not own _Magic School Bus_. All rights go to Scholastic, Inc. and other respective owners.**

* * *

 **Baking Under the Sun on Mercury**

* * *

Before I even knew it, we were already approaching Mercury and the bus started slowing down for another orbital insertion and subsequent landing. Being the closest planet to the Sun, I was surprised and somewhat disappointed to see that Mercury looked very similar to the Moon. The entire surface was covered with craters of all sizes, though there seemed to be a lot more of them here than back on the Moon. There were virtually no abstract-looking dark plains on its surface like there were on the Moon, and the surface had an overall darker grayish hue that seemed to resemble that of graphite. Apart from a slight tinge of brown that seemed to give the planet a slight bit of color, it still wasn't enough to make it stand out like Earth. The side of the planet facing the Sun appeared very rugged and crisp where shadows casted themselves in crater basins, behind mountains, and from the tops of high cliffs. There also didn't appear to be any atmosphere, just like on the Moon.

As I watched the planet inch closer, I saw that we were already headed towards the brightly illuminated (and baked) day side. I remembered the lecture Ms. Frizzle had given us on the Moon and decided that Mercury must also have been inactive for a very long time. Its surface was a testament to a history of unimaginable cosmic violence, one that spanned billions of years. There didn't appear to be any signs of volcanos or recent lava flows anywhere on its surface. If there ever was any volcanic activity, it probably wouldn't happen again anytime soon, given how desolate the surface was. But even as I watched, I was surprised when Ms. Frizzle pointed out features that almost resembled ancient lava flows and even the tops of old volcanoes that had seen been overlaid with craters, something that I hadn't come across in any astronomy textbook, even the ones D.A. had shared with the rest of the class. It was only then that I realized I was seeing things that had yet to be seen by anyone else back on Earth.

"So cous, are you excited about landing on Mercury?" Janet asked as she approached me, her tone suggesting that she noticed my inner concerns. I lifted my head, straightened my back, and turned towards her to match her gaze.

"I am, actually." I replied confidently. "I can't wait to get my hands on some interesting Mercury rocks."

"Speaking of rocks, where are your _Moon_ rocks? Surely you can't beat _my_ finds…"

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"My rocks are pretty large, as you may have noticed…" Janet said. "Not only that, but they also sparkle in the sunlight! I bet _your_ rocks can't do that…"

"You know, Janet, _quantity_ doesn't necessarily make your find better than mine. It's the _quality_ of the rock sample that usually counts."

"Prove it!"

I reached into the compartment of my spacesuit and pulled out my lunar findings. My lunar dust and curious-looking moon rocks didn't seem to impress her. But then I pulled out the bag of orange lunar soil and Janet's eyes widened. I didn't miss the way her pupils dilated at the sight of it.

"Oh, wow…that just isn't fair!" Janet whined. "That's so cool! I want some of that too! Please cous! You can have my large rock!"

"Sorry, Janet." I replied smugly. "You know what they say: _Finders keepers_."

"Please, Arnold? Please…?!"

"No."

I put my lunar samples back into the safety of my spacesuit compartment and heard Janet scowl as she floated away from me. I thought I heard her say that she would try to find something on Mercury that would top my lunar find, but I simply ignored her and refocused my attention out the window. I just wasn't in the mood to put up with her, and apparently neither was the rest of the class.

D.A. looked over at my cousin and then towards me before shaking her head and rolling her eyes. The only other time I recall ever seeing her this annoyed was when her and Carlos had that fabled political argument over the color purple when we explored Ms. Frizzle's 'pinball' machine.

That thought was not a happy thought.

* * *

I had already gotten used to the landing sequence by the time we approached Mercury's surface. The rockets didn't make any sound, validating the fact that there was hardly any atmosphere to carry the sound. Gravity had also once again returned, though it was still weak compared to Earth's. Even so, I sensed that the gravity on Mercury was about twice as strong as it was back on the Moon by the time we touched down. I must have weighed about thirty-two pounds, if my gravity calculations were correct. But before I could check to make sure they were, Ms. Frizzle killed the ignition and got up from her seat to open the door.

"Here we are, class! Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun!" she shouted from the driver seat as the door opened. Before I knew it, everyone was already piling out of the bus and I felt the air-conditioning unit in my spacesuit kick on automatically. It was a little easier to walk here than it was on the Moon, though the rest of the class and I still found it easier to hop around like rabbits. Even Liz took it upon herself to bounce on her tail, just as she did back on the Moon.

I still think that that lizard should be in a cartoon.

"Is it just me, or does Mercury look a lot like our Moon?" I heard Ralphie ask. "Look at all the craters!"

"There are some differences, but overall it does look very 'Moon-esque'." Ms. Frizzle replied.

"Man, I was hoping there would be some sign of aliens… At least a footprint or two…"

"Nothing can live on Mercury, Ralphie. It's too hot and dry during the day." Keesha said.

"And according to my research, way below _freezing_ at night!" D.A. added.

"And just like on the Moon, there's no atmosphere to breath." Ms. Frizzle said. "This is the very reason why Mercury gets so cold during the night. The same is true for our Moon, but the temperature differences there are no match for the ones found here. You see, class, temperatures can plummet to _minus_ two hundred seventy degrees Fahrenheit during the night here on Mercury. Come here at midday at the equator however, the temperature can reach eight hundred _plus_! That's hot enough to melt lead."

"Talk about fire and ice! We can't win on this planet!" Carlos said. "We're frying on this side of the planet and we'd be freezing on the other!"

My heart sank.

The very idea of stepping around on the surface of a planet where the temperatures were high enough to incinerate me was something I didn't want to contemplate. But for some sick and demented reason, I imagined how such an experience would quickly deteriorate if the bottoms of my space boots decided to melt off due to the intense heat. I managed a shudder and felt the color drain from my face before I even tried to rid myself of those scary thoughts.

"But don't worry, class! I've already reinforced your suits to withstand the heat. If we stay inside our spacesuits, we will remain safe."

Thank god.

Ms. Frizzle always knew exactly when to address my fears. It was as if she could read my inner thoughts and answer each one of them with a reassuring solution, no matter the circumstances. Being the wimp, I was, it probably should have come as no surprise to me. But, before Mercury, I was already beginning to think that this field trip wouldn't pose any more danger after we almost got hit by the solar flare. My ideas of safety and security, it seemed, just hit another roadblock. Even though I knew Ms. Frizzle's magic would keep us safe, I still found myself wishing for SPF 8000 sunblock as I felt sweat drip down my face. At least I'd go back to Earth with a little bit of color in my pale skin.

On the other hand, the thought of freezing to death on the night side of Mercury was also not on my list of priorities. But, if I absolutely _had_ to pick between the two hells, I would rather end up as an ice statue rather than a mangled, dehydrated, and sunbaked mesh of black, charred gore. But of course, Ms. Frizzle had to pick a landing site on the side facing the Sun.

I like my body raw, not extra crispy.

"You alright, Arnold?" Ralphie asked as he approached. "Your face went pale for a moment. You're not getting sick, are you?"

"I'm fine." I said. "Just trying to think about anything other than the heat."

"Don't worry, I'm with you there. Man, that Sun is just too bright!"

"And big." I added. Even without the protection of sunglasses, I reckoned the Sun had to have appeared two and a half times larger in the sky than it did back on Earth. The sky was black and dotted with unwinking stars, but the harsh glare from the Sun made it very difficult to see any of them. Even when I turned the other way, the rocky, cratered Mercurian landscape seemed to reflect the glare with great efficiency. It didn't help that my spacesuit visor was highly reflective either. Even though I couldn't hear my footsteps, I could certainly _feel_ them. The ground underfoot was similar in consistency to that of the Moon, but coarser and not quite as dusty, though there was still plenty of dust for me to kick up with each footfall I made. It was like walking through gravel made of chunks of basalt and broken glass heated over a raging bonfire. It sure made Death Valley look lush and inviting.

"Hey, look! There's some shade behind that large rock over there!" Ralphie pointed out. "Let's go cool down over there."

"Agreed."

We both hopped towards the shade as fast as our legs would carry us. The rest of the class had wandered to a nearby crater not too far from where we stood, but thankfully we weren't far enough to lose them. As Ralphie and I both stepped into the shadow of the large rock, we immediately jumped back in shock.

"Is it just me or was it very cold in the shade?!" he asked.

"I felt it too." I replied. "It felt like someone poured ice cubes down my back!"

"Well, at least we were able to escape the heat for a few seconds." Ralphie said.

That might have been so, but the raging heat from the Sun was once again making us sweat like there was no tomorrow. It made me long for a beach and the ocean, but it took a considerable effort for me to remember that the nearest free-standing body of water was millions of miles away on another planet. Even so, the fact that Mercury was a barren world still didn't help me get over my sudden craving for vanilla ice cream.

If anything, it made it worse.

I looked back over to Ralphie who was making way around the rock and towards the rest of the class. I followed him and covered my eyes with my hands to protect them from the blinding Sun. I still couldn't get over what had just happened. The idea of sweltering in the heat, only to simultaneously freeze to death in the shade, was weird to say the least. But it got me thinking. Why would the shaded areas on Mercury be so cold, even in the middle of the day? I knew that the lack of atmosphere was a factor, but why such a drastic difference in temperature? Surely it couldn't be because the shaded areas never receive any sunlight… Could it?

"Gosh, it's hot!" I heard Keesha say from a nearby boulder. "Why does Mercury have to be the planet _closest_ to the Sun?"

"If the Sun would just hurry up and _set_ , we won't have to worry about the heat!" Wanda complained.

"We'd have to wait a _very_ long time for that to happen." Ms. Frizzle said. "At this rate, we'd be better off just hitching a ride on the bus to the night side. You see, class, Mercury doesn't have a day that's twenty-four hours like the Earth does. Instead, it takes Mercury about fifty-nine Earth _days_ to complete one rotation about its axis!"

"Fifty-nine Earth days?!" Tim said. "That's almost two _months_!"

"No wonder it gets so cold at night…" I said out loud.

"But there is a catch…" Ms. Frizzle went on. "Since Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, it has the shortest _year_ of any planet. It only takes this planet eighty-eight Earth days to travel around the Sun. That's only about three months."

"That means I'd get a lot more birthdays on Mercury!" Janet blurted out. "Four every Earth year!"

"We all would, Janet…" I muttered.

"Wait a minute…" D.A. said. "When you said a day on Mercury is fifty-nine Earth days long, is that relative to the stars?"

"Why, yes, D.A." Ms. Frizzle replied. "That's the catch, and I'm glad you caught on. Because Mercury goes around the Sun so fast, the angle at which the Sun shines on the planet's surface changes drastically. Combine that with Mercury's slow rotation, and you have a solar day that lasts up to 176 Earth days!"

"That's twice as long as one Mercury _year_!" Phoebe said. "I'd hate to imagine what a Mercury calendar would look like!"

Frankly, I would too. A hundred and seventy-six Earth days from one sunset to the next?! We were _definitely_ better off flying the bus around to the night side of Mercury than waiting around for the next one! It was no wonder the shaded areas that me and Ralphie explored were so cold. They've been in shadow, out of the sunlight, for a very long time.

"And, if I remember right from my research," D.A. said, "Mercury makes two revolutions for every three rotations…"

"In other words, a three-to-two _orbital resonance_ …" Janet interrupted, as if to cut her off.

"Very good, Janet!" Ms. Frizzle said as she grinned appreciatively.

I didn't miss the way D.A. looked over at Janet with that all-too-familiar look of annoyance that I had seen earlier. I also didn't miss the way Janet gave D.A. a returning glance reminiscent of the hellish grin worn by the Grinch. Its message was clear: _I outsmarted you! What are you going to do about it?_

Well, at least that's what Janet thought, it seemed.

I knew D.A. well enough to know that she wasn't out to get anyone by trying to be the smartest person in the class. She couldn't help the fact that she enjoyed learning. She probably would have mentioned Mercury's orbital resonance if Janet wasn't so quick to interrupt her. That's because, unlike my cousin, D.A. was not an attention hog, and she knew better than to make herself look like a fool by calling out Janet in front of Ms. Frizzle.

On the other hand, I knew that interrupting someone else while they were talking was not very polite. The fact that Ms. Frizzle made no mention of the fact that Janet cut off D.A. midsentence, and instead praised her for mentioning the term _orbital resonance_ , was odd to say the least. Whether or not the Friz was just trying to avoid any form of discipline toward Janet due to the exciting nature of our field trip, or whether she was so unused to disciplining anyone in our class (since we were all really good students), I still couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something else at work. The initial shock of going to the planetarium for a field trip, coupled with the fact that Ms. Frizzle wanted to take us back to school upon realizing that it was closed, was still fresh in my mind. If Janet hadn't come along, would things have been any different, apart from the classroom dynamic?

Could Janet reallybe the reason why the Friz didn't take us into space to begin with?

The circumstances were suggestive, but apart from that, there was really nothing to prove that it was true. The more I pondered it, the more frustrated I became. For a moment, I knew how D.A. must've felt. Her expression matched mine almost perfectly, even though she was frustrated for a different and more obvious reason.

"It gets even stranger…" Ms. Frizzle continued. "If you stood in the right spot on Mercury and watched the Sun rise, you would see it slow down in the sky, reverse its path, slow down again, and then continue in the forward direction once more! Again, this is the result of having a very short year combined with a very slow rotation. The same thing would happen at sunset too."

"That would be cool to see!" Wanda said. "Seeing the Sun rise and set _twice_ in one day?! That's crazy!"

"You'd have to be standing in the same spot for a very long time, Wanda." Keesha said.

"That's true…" Wanda replied, remembering how long a day on Mercury is. "I guess a time lapse film would have to do."

"But at least you'll have an interesting view." Carlos said. "Especially next to a large crater."

"Yes, indeed." Ms. Frizzle said. "Mercury is the most cratered planet in our Solar System! No matter where you are on its surface, you're bound to come across a few of them. Some only a few feet across, and others reaching hundreds of miles across. Look at them all! Excellent hiding places for meteorites… Shall we investigate?"

The whole class erupted in fanfare as Ms. Frizzle handed each of us a shovel. How I had failed to notice that she was carrying them on her back, or how they were able to withstand the heat, was beyond my understanding. Perhaps she beamed them to us Star-Trek-style by means of magic while I wasn't looking and used that same magic to make them heat-resistant. If only I had one of those shovels back on the Moon…

In any case, I took a shovel and started towards a nearby crater that was as wide as I was tall. Ralphie found another crater a few feet away from mine, while the rest of the class took off in the opposite direction and jumped down into a field that was literally studded with hundreds of smaller craters. We set ourselves digging almost immediately, eager to find some hidden treasure. Despite the lower gravity, I found digging on Mercury almost as difficult as back on Earth. The ground was completely devoid of moisture, making the gravel hard to penetrate. I almost fell on my knees as I used all my strength to dig up as much dirt and rubble as I could with one scoop.

Just as I thought about giving up and searching another crater, I felt a smile surface on my face as I felt something hard jab the end of my shovel. I got down and cleared the excess rubble and grinned as I lifted out a shiny and metallic piece of rock.

"Ralphie! Look at this!" I said, admiring my new prize. The meteorite was about the size of my fist and had a weird oblong shape. Its metallic composition made it dense and slightly heavy in my hand, but not nearly enough to make my outstretched arm ache. It had remained undisturbed and buried in Mercury's surface for billions of years as one of many time capsules, only for me to come along and yank it from its supposed final resting place. Looking back on this moment now as an adult, it almost seems sacrilegious to have taken that meteorite, especially given the fact that I had found it on Mercury. After all, space rocks like _that_ typically don't come cheap in any kind of Earth-based market.

"Did you find a meteorite?" he asked, rushing over to where I stood.

"See for yourself!" I replied excitedly, holding out my precious find to let Ralphie get a good glimpse of it. He was just as amazed as I was.

"Wow! Great find, Arnold!" he said. "That will go well with the rest of your rocks!"

"Definitely!"

I didn't get the chance to get a second glance at it. As if responding to my success, I saw Janet rushing her way towards me and Ralphie. Without even bothering to put it in a bag (it would just melt in the heat anyway), I slipped my precious find into my spacesuit's storage compartment, making sure she didn't see my find. I'd be sure to seal it up later. As I watched, she appeared to have a determined look on her face, one that suggested she would not leave until she found something of value to take back to Earth. My thoughts skipped back to our recent exploration of the Moon and the dilemma she had faced.

"Don't mind me." she said, jumping into a crater I could've sworn wasn't there before. It was located right next to both mine and Ralphie's craters and was about the twice the size and depth. Without any additional words, Janet began digging furiously, sending dirt, rocks, and boulders in all directions, some of which almost hit me and Ralphie in our faces. At that rate, Janet's crater might as well become a dried-up well.

"Janet! What are you doing?!" I yelled as more flying rocks threatened to shatter the visor of my spacesuit. "Hey! Watch it!"

"Get out of the way, cous! I'm trying to find the _perfect_ sample to take back home and show everyone!" she yelled back.

"You could've given us more warning, you know." Ralphie shot back.

Janet said nothing, but instead flung even more debris out from the bottom of the crater. But just as soon as it began, Janet's speedy digging operation ceased.

"Eureka!" she suddenly shouted. "My very own meteorite!"

Ralphie and I went over to view my cousin's handiwork.

"When I show this to _my_ class, it'll _prove_ I was on Mercury!"

"Oh, Janet…" I muttered. I couldn't help but smile out of pity for my cousin. She did not have to go out her way to dig up the largest meteorite to prove to her class that she went on a grand journey through the Solar System, let alone beat me on finding the best rocks. Was this how it would be for each planet we end up visiting? The thought made me slightly queasy because I knew in my mind that the simple answer would be yes. If there was one thing I could count on, it was the fact that my cousin was highly predictable. Once her mind was set on something, she would dwell on it until it's finished or until she found something else to dwell on. Even so, I had to give Janet credit. She _did_ find a pretty good-sized meteorite. I reckoned it was about the size of D.A.'s book bag, and so pristine, as though it had been _forged_ only yesterday. I can only imagine how valuable it would've been in today's market, given their rarity on Earth.

* * *

After a few more minutes of playing around in the dirt, Ms. Frizzle said it was time to leave Mercury and travel to our next destination. After climbing on the bus and strapping ourselves in in, the Friz ignited the bus's engine and we were once again flying into the space. I looked out the window to get one last look at Mercury's cratered surface before we ended up flying over its night side. Abruptly, the light from the Sun had vanished over the horizon, causing the inside of the bus to go dark. It was then that I looked above the darkened landscape to behold the billions of stars in the sky overhead.

"We're now flying over Mercury's north pole!" Ms. Frizzle said.

"It's too dark to see anything, Ms. Frizzle." Tim said.

"Oh, not to worry, Tim! Let's shine some light onto the surface! There's one last surprise I want to show you guys."

"Huh?"

Confused, I watched as Ms. Frizzle pressed another button on the console and built-in searchlights beamed their way down onto Mercury's surface. The surface looked pretty much the same, nothing special; that is, until something inside a deep crater caught my eye. Inside the crater was a patch of white, a very familiar-looking patch of white. Surely not…

"Ms. Frizzle? Is that… what I think it is?" I heard Ralphie ask.

"It is indeed." she replied. " _Ice_ on Mercury! Who would've thought?"

"Ice?! But how is that possible?" Keesha asked. "Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun! It's over eight hundred degrees during the day here! Surely, there can't be ice here!"

"Ah, but there is." Ms. Frizzle said. "Part of the reason for this is that the insides of these craters are always in shadow. That's because Mercury's axis of rotation is almost perfectly pointed straight up-and-down. It is thought that long ago, icy comets and asteroids hit Mercury's surface and some of the ices from the impactors ended up being deposited inside these craters. Since the ice is in permanent darkness, it stays cold and never thaws out."

"Very interesting! Even _I_ didn't know that!" I heard Janet say.

"I guess I was right." Carlos said. "Mercury really is a world of fire and ice…"

"Where's the fire, Carlos?" Ralphie joked.

"Ha-ha, very funny!" he replied sarcastically.

I continued looking out the window, incredulous. I have seen many weird things during Ms. Frizzle's field trips, but nothing at that moment surprised me more than the fact that there was ice on _Mercury_ , a planet where ice, seemingly, had no right to be. If this planet had already defied my ideas of reality, why not the other planets? The thought infused me with renewed excitement, making me wonder what other surprises Ms. Frizzle had to offer us.

After about a minute, I felt the bus gain velocity as we headed towards our next destination, and Mercury left our field of vision. Sunlight once more flooded the inside of the bus and weightlessness had also once again returned. Despite my excitement, I was also anxious.

I could only hope that wherever we ended up next would not pose any significant danger.

* * *

 **Hey everyone!**

 **I once again apologize for the prolonged wait for this chapter. I had things come up in my life that I couldn't ignore, so I wasn't able to get anything during done during that time.**

 **The rivalry between Janet and D.A. is really starting to show, and Arnold fears the worst as he remembers the time D.A. and Carlos had an argument over the color purple. I wasn't too sure if that happened before or after Ms. Frizzle's trip into outer space, given the confusing and vague nature surrounding the chronological order of the field trips. For the purposes of this story, I decided that the light episode happened before this one.**

 **I hoped you enjoyed reading this chapter. See you in the next one!**

 **saturn95**


	6. Under Pressure on Venus

**Hello, everyone! Finally, after a long hiatus, I finally bring to you the next installment of Lost in Space and Time! Enjoy :)**

 **I do not own _The Magic School Bus_. All copyrights and trademarks belong to Scholastic, Inc., as well as any other respective owners.**

* * *

 **Under Pressure on Venus**

Let me be perfectly clear to anyone who has never been in Ms. Frizzle's class during one of her crazy field trips: Most of the time, you don't know what to expect, especially when there is already a great deal of exciting things happening. One moment, you're cruising down Main Street, listening to a great song Ms. Frizzle has playing on the radio, only to realize moments later that there is an octopus staring at you through the window after you could have sworn you were just idling through the neighborhood.

Sometimes, our adventures with the Friz were, for lack of a better term, questionable. Whether it be trespassing onto a controlled tree farm in the Amazon to solve the mystery of Ms. Frizzle's missing cocoa or entering my best friend's bloodstream through an open cut in his knee, I always found myself questioning the outrageousness of it all. But by the time we return to normality, I always found myself feeling energized and full of excitement, like I had just got off the world's fastest roller coaster ride. If this idea of exciting and eccentric unpredictability – for whatever reason – does not appeal to you, then I suggest going to a different third-grade class to watch old documentaries and filmstrips from the discomfort of a plastic classroom chair.

But then again, who watches filmstrips anymore?

On the other hand, the idea of flying through the Solar System may have already convinced you that being in Ms. Frizzle's classroom was worth the fuss (and, believe me, it was!). Only about two minutes after our adventure on Mercury, I heard the familiar tell-tale beeping sound emanating from the map indicating that we were approaching our next target. Ms. Frizzle, still seated behind the wheel, gestured to the yellowish dot on the screen that the bus icon was approaching.

"We're now approaching…"

"Venus! The second planet from the Sun!" Janet blurted, cutting off the Friz before she could finish her sentence. "I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait!"

Even from my vantage point, I could see Liz getting annoyed by my cousin interrupting her master. But, surprisingly, Ms. Frizzle seemed to shrug it off as the planet came into view.

"Take a look, class!"

"Cool! Venus has clouds, just like Earth!" Wanda said.

"And it looks like they're covering the entire planet." Keesha added.

Indeed, Venus _was_ covered entirely by clouds. They reflected the light from the Sun about as effectively as a mirror, making it hard to discern any features (or at least what little there was). Apart from the slight yellowish tinge of the Venusian clouds, there was really nothing remarkable about Venus' appearance, much to my dismay. At least this planet had an atmosphere. I knew that where there was atmosphere, there also had to be wind, weather, and something for sound to travel through. But beyond that, the surface of the planet remained a total mystery for me at that time because of those clouds.

"Venus is often regarded as Earth's sister planet." Ms. Frizzle explained. "For one, it's about the same size as Earth, though just a bit smaller. Secondly, it has a similar internal structure and composition as Earth. And third, it has a year similar in length to that of Earth's, 225 Earth days to be exact."

"I wonder what it looks like beneath all of those clouds." Carlos said.

"We'll find out soon." Ms. Frizzle said.

"Now here's something interesting." D.A. started. "According to my research, Venus is the only planet in our Solar System that's named after a woman."

"That's right, D.A." Ms. Frizzle said. "Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, and rightfully so because of its brilliance in Earth's night sky. It is, in fact, the brightest planet seen from Earth."

With those words, I suddenly envisioned myself standing on top of a hill overlooking Walkerville during the evening twilight with my parents just a year earlier, before I ever stepped foot in Ms. Frizzle's classroom. We were looking up at the stars and the night sky just after the Sun dipped below the horizon and darkness began settling in when my father pointed out a bright dot in the west. I remembered him saying that it was a planet, but I couldn't remember which one he said it was, probably because I was distracted by something my mother was saying to me at the same time. My parents had a habit of doing that from time to time. I then remembered other times when I saw that same bright dot in the morning before the Sun rose above the horizon, sometimes shining brilliantly alongside the crescent Moon.

But then I remembered. That bright dot in the sky I saw that night was in fact the goddess of love herself. She had been welcoming the new day in the east and saying good night in the west while I remained oblivious, carrying titles such as "the morning star" and "the evening star" as she and her sister world Earth raced around the Sun in their adjacent orbits. All unknowingly, I had been looking at the same planet that was now looming in the window before me.

I looked out towards the cloud-shrouded world and saw it with renewed eyes, feeling a sort of "attachment" to the planet as it conjured up the memories from that night. Even so, I really wanted to know what was down on the surface. Being just a little closer to the Sun than Earth, I figured Venus had to be just a little warmer. Perhaps tropical? Surely the surface must be very wet, right? After all, clouds make rain, so the whole surface of Venus must be saturated with moisture. And if the surface is wet, and the climate warmer than Earth's, there'd have to be swamps and jungles. And if there's swamps, there must be ferns. And if there's ferns… maybe there's even _dinosaurs_?

Despite me not being able to see much, I was somehow able to successfully convince my then eight-year-old mind that there might be prehistoric creatures on the surface of Venus. It wouldn't be long before my theory could be put to the test.

I looked up towards the window as the curvature of Venus gradually closed in as the bus started to enter the Venusian atmosphere. Overhead, the sky started to take on a slightly purple tinge, brightening to an off-white cream color before the clouds made their presence abundantly clear, obscuring the Sun from view. At that moment, the inside of the bus took on a bright yellowish-orange tinge and the sound of fast-moving winds outside became apparent. Finally, I could hear the sounds of an alien world.

"Wow! What a view!" D.A. said just as unimaginably strong turbulence started to rock the bus back and forth, like a tree braving the force of hurricane-force winds back on Earth. Everyone gasped as another blast of strong wind shook our vessel, causing us to fish-tail and spin any which way.

"I think I'll go sit down now…" I said out loud with me realizing it, trying not to get sick from the rapid movement of the bus. It was an effort to swallow.

"Everyone! Strap yourselves in!" Ms. Frizzle's voice rang. "Things are about to get even more turbulent!"

I quickly found a chair next to the window just as I noticed the tell-tale flashes of lightning emanating from outside. Thunder rumbled and shook the bus with terrifying violence just as my ears started to pop uncontrollably. At the same time, new sounds started emanating from outside, ones that almost made me think of bacon sizzling on top of an iron skillet. Only when the Friz pressed another button on the center console did the sizzling sounds suddenly disappear. I suddenly had the terrible premonition that Venus, despite having a lovely appearance on the outside, was hiding a dark and deadly secret underneath its mask of clouds.

As if confirming my suspicions, the sounds of creaking, bending metal suddenly echoed inside the bus and a red hazard light flashed overhead, alarms blaring. I couldn't help but think of being inside a large submarine thousands of feet below the ocean surface. Only then did I realize that gravity had since returned, much stronger this time than on either the Moon or Mercury. But I knew I couldn't have been strong enough to cause the bus to contort and creak. In fact, it felt no different than the gravitational forces I felt back on Earth, with maybe slightly _less_ pull. Despite this, I found it hard for myself to recoil from my sudden motion sickness.

It only goes to show that you can have an active imagination, make 'educated' guesses based on slippery-slope presumptions of how things work, as well as expect things that might be classified as "unexpected" – and still get things, as it were, _dead wrong_. Only then did I begin to revise my earlier opinions on Venus.

By now, the rockets on the bus became too loud to bear. Even so, I looked out the window and was immediately surprised to see that that clouds had cleared, revealing a landscape unlike anything I had predicted up until that point. There were no craters as far as I could tell, but there were a few rolling hills and tall mountains in the distance – all of which exhibited a similar unwelcoming orange tinge as the sky overhead. Despite Venus's proximity to the Sun, I figured the clouds had to have been very thick, since the surface below was very gloomy – perhaps only about as bright as an overcast day back on Earth. There was no water, no vegetation, no dinosaurs – only a barren, lifeless, and evidently hot landscape.

It didn't take long for the bus to come to a rest on the surface. It landed with a bone-rattling THUD before proceeding to rest on all four wheels. I felt the air-conditioning in my spacesuit kick on at full blast almost immediately, and it felt as though my suit seemed to gain some extra weight – almost as if it had gained a second skin that was comprised of thick metal alloys. It was heavy, but not enough to hinder my mobility.

"Well, here we are class! Welcome to Venus – the _hottest_ planet in our Solar System!" Ms. Frizzle said as she once again killed the ignition. "Today's forecast calls for one-hundred percent cloud cover, barometric pressures about ninety times greater than at sea-level on Earth, and an estimated high temperature of nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit..."

Wait…what?!

My heart performed a triple somersault. Nine hundred-degree temperatures by themselves would've been enough to give me a heart attack. But with the added hazard of extremely high atmospheric pressure, it seemed like overkill – and I thought Mercury was bad! If Hell is a real place, then I'm pretty sure that I've already been there and came back in one piece by a miracle of time-lord magic. But then again, I might as well have walked into the world's largest pressure cooker and call it by the same name. No joke. The Russians had essentially built one to test their _Venera_ landers before they were sent to Venus back in the 1970s and early 1980s after their initial attempts at landing on the surface had failed. Or, so I've been told.

Again, as already stated, I like my body raw, not extra crispy – let alone pressure-cooked. But at least here, I didn't need sunglasses to keep myself from going blind.

"Nine hundred degrees?!" Tim blurted out. "That's way too hot!"

"Is the air conditioning in our suits going to be enough to keep us alive?" Phoebe asked, genuinely concerned and fearful.

"Not to worry, class!" Ms. Frizzle replied. "I've already activated the air conditioning in your suits and set them to withstand the extreme heat of Venus. You may have noticed that your suits got heavier as we descended. That's because I've also reinforced your suits to withstand the air pressure outside."

"Ninety times the air pressure on Earth? Talk about being _under pressure_." Carlos said, as if to crack another one of his bad puns. Judging by the silence inside the bus, I think everyone was too nervous to laugh. Either that, or it just wasn't that funny. Or both. Even my cousin didn't so much as cough as the door leading outside opened. Despite our nagging fears, we somehow managed to find at least some excitement out of landing on Earth's evil twin.

"Come along, class!" said the Friz as she exited the bus. Everyone else followed suit. I was behind my cousin, who was following closely behind Carlos. As we approached the door, it looked as though Carlos was getting ready to jump out the door and get some air like he did on the Moon and Mercury. But then, he jumped out only getting about as much air as he normally would back in Walkerville before landing flat on his bottom. Judging by the sound of the impact and the way he grunted upon hitting the ground, I could tell Carlos would be in a lot of pain for the next few minutes.

"Man! I feel like I way the same here as I do on Earth!" I heard him say as he winced from the sudden pain he inflicted on his underside. At least he was protected from the heat!

"That's because Venus is about the same size as Earth and has about the same gravity!" Janet blurted back, not even giving a second thought to helping him back onto his feet. I reached for Carlos' hand as I finally made it out of the bus. But my cousin and the thick Venusian air had other ideas.

"Come on, Arnold!" Janet scolded as she grabbed my wrist and proceeded to drag me across the hellish surface of Venus. Even though my weight was comparable to my normal weight back home, the air around me was so thick that it felt no different than trying to walk underwater. At least the wind wasn't blowing so hard as it was high up in the clouds. In fact, there was hardly any wind at all down on the surface. But as I quickly discovered, even a slight 'breeze' was enough to render me a fallen tree. I found myself lying flat on my back like a piece of steak on a broiling barbeque, looking up at the yellowish-orange sky above me, lightning flashing, and sweating like I've never sweat before. Even with the air-conditioning running at full icy blast inside my suit, the heat outside still made it feel like I was sunbathing on the hottest summer day in the Sahara Desert, minus the Sun of course.

I looked and saw Janet looming over me, her face meeting mine before reaching down to pull me back onto my feet.

"Why are you acting like this, Janet?" I asked, as she continued dragging me along with her. "Is there a reason why you're being so mean to me?"

"Well, since you won't share your other rock samples with me, I decided that I'd have youpick out _my_ rock samples." Janet responded.

In other words, Janet wanted to make me her rock-gathering slave.

"Why don't you just pick them yourself?"

"Because, Arnold, you know where to find the good ones!" she complained. "You are the rock collector, after all. I have to find the _best_ rocks to _prove_ to my class that I was on Venus, and you're the only one that can help me!"

"So, you're admitting that I'm _better_ at something than you?" I asked both quizzically and mockingly. Janet fell silent.

"Why not have some one else help you?" I then asked, so as not to seem too harsh. "Have you at least tried asking _Dorothy Ann_?"

Janet's expression turned sour as she grabbed my wrist and tightened her grip out of angst.

"Are you kidding me?! Get real, Arnold! You saw the way she made me look like a fool earlier! There's no way I'm asking _her_ for help!"

"Why?"

"Because, Arnold, _I'm_ supposed to be the smartest one here! Not her!"

"What about _Ms. Frizzle_?" I asked.

Janet went silent after that but kept dragging me along as we followed everyone else. I was right, of course. But there was no sense causing any more drama with Janet. Besides, I just wasn't in the mood, a fact that has already been well-established and needs no further mentioning.

Despite its namesake, it was clear that Venus was one angry goddess. Looking around, I could see others in my class struggling to cope with the thick, soupy air as the seemingly pathetic breeze threatened to knock them and myself over like a cat about to knock over a glass of water off a countertop. The ground beneath my feet felt as solid as concrete, with patches of rubble to break it up and add some texture to the otherwise bland stony surface. The rock and pebbles that littered the ground, if not the entire Venusian surface, all appeared to be dark and volcanic in origin, and exhibited the same sickly, yellowish-orange hue as the sky above. As I reached to examine an exceptionally large rock, lightning suddenly casted its anti-shadow through an unusually thick patch of sickly, brown-hued, and fast-moving Venusian clouds, revealing the planet for the Hell it was.

"Check out those weird clouds!" Carlos yelled from nearby.

"They're moving so fast!" Phoebe replied.

"Oh good, a little _rain_ will cool the place down!" I heard Wanda shout in a sarcastic tone.

"Except that's not rainwater in those clouds, Wanda." Ms. Frizzle interjected, almost as if she expected someone to make that remark. "It's _sulfuric acid_."

"Sulfuric acid?!" Ralphie gasped.

"Mm hmm… It's a deadly poison."

As far as I could tell you, that was probably the greatest understatement I've heard come from Ms. Frizzle during that trip. You've seen those experiments with sulfuric acid being poured into beakers of sugar? Or even those where the acid is added to water or reacts to different metals? There's a reason why sulfuric acid is handled in laboratories with great care – not only is it highly toxic, but it is highly corrosive. More potent than car battery acid, it would burn through human flesh and most metals with ease (which is why landers sent to the surface of Venus are made of higher-grade metals such as tungsten). Ms. Frizzle made no further mention of it, probably to keep us kids from panicking, but of course it didn't help too much with some of my friends.

"I really hope acid doesn't start raining from the sky!" Ralphie panicked. "I'm too young to die!"

"Oh, Ralphie don't worry!" Ms. Frizzle assured. "We're perfectly safe, as long as we keep our spacesuits on. Besides, even if acid started pouring over us, it would evaporate long before it ever reached the ground! In fact, it was raining acid during our decent through the Venusian clouds not too long ago. It's doing it right now over the whole planet."

I looked up into the hellish sky and remembered hearing sizzling as we fell. Suddenly, everything that happened on the way down seemed to make a lot more sense. The sizzling was, in fact, sulfuric acid reacting with the metal exterior of the bus.

"So, let me get this straight." Keesha said. "We fell through clouds of acid to get here. How is it that the bus is still in one piece? I mean, I know it was magic, but what _kind_ of magic did you use to help us survive the acid?"

"I used an acid shield made of tungsten – one of the few metals that are resistant to sulfuric acid." Ms. Frizzle replied. "It fits over the entire bus like a glove when activated and lasts for as long as it's needed. I also used a similar shield to protect the bus from the pressure. If that shield were to give out, our bus would've been crushed! That's how great the atmospheric pressure is on Venus."

For some reason, I pictured crushing a soda can in Ralphie's garage using the can crusher attached to the wall next to the door leading out to his backyard. Then I imagined the bus going through something similar on the surface of Venus. It inspired a chill down my spine, which I guess was good considering how hot it was. But, even so, it made me want to leave this planet as quickly as possible. I sure _hated_ Venus – and no, I'm not saying this out of pure irony to the fact it was named after a loving deity. Simultaneously getting burnt by lead-melting heat and acid rain, asphyxiated from lack of oxygen, blown away by hurricane-force _and_ walking-pace winds, as well as getting crushed by an atmosphere heavy enough to crush my dad's car into a flat piece of metal is not high on my list of priorities – that's all.

I felt Janet yank on my arm, but I resisted and somehow managed to stay on both feet.

"Come on, Arnold!" she said. "Let's go."

"Not now, Janet." I said.

"But Arnold! I have to find the perfect rock sample to take back to Earth!"

"In a minute, Janet!"

Janet fought with my arm for about a minute before giving up, at least for the next five minutes.

"Ms. Frizzle?" Phoebe said. "You said Venus was the hottest planet in the Solar System?"

"That's right, Phoebe."

"Why is Venus so hot? Mercury's closer to the Sun, so shouldn't it be hotter than Venus?"

"Excellent question! Well, the reason has to do with Venus's atmosphere. The reason why Mercury isn't hotter is because, as we've seen, there's no atmosphere on that planet to trap the Sun's heat – which is why it experiences dramatic shifts in temperature from day to night. But here on Venus, you have the opposite situation where you have an atmosphere that's made almost entirely of carbon dioxide gas that almost a hundred times thicker than Earth's atmosphere. Combined with Venus' thick cloud cover, this makes it very difficult for the Sun's heat to escape back into space. So, what happens is that the temperature rises until it reaches a balancing point where heat is being trapped as much as heat is escaping. This is called the greenhouse effect."

"Wow! So does the greenhouse effect take place on other planets?" D.A. asked.

"Oh, absolutely!" Ms. Frizzle replied. "Any planet with an atmosphere experiences some form of the greenhouse effect. In fact, on Earth we have a little bit of a greenhouse effect, and that's because of the small amount of carbon dioxide and water vapor in our atmosphere – what we call 'greenhouse gases'. And, it turns out that's a good thing. Unfortunately, the greenhouse effect gets a bad rap these days, because many are afraid that we're getting too much of a greenhouse effect on our planet due to our industrial activity – what some refer to as 'global warming'. It's a very complicated and often political issue, so I'm not going to go into too much into detail on that subject. But I will say this – if Earth didn't have a greenhouse effect at all, we wouldn't be able to live there. Our oceans would probably be frozen solid and life as we know it would not exist. Thankfully, Earth gets about sixty degrees of warming from the greenhouse effect, which keeps it in the comfortable temperate range that it's in right now."

"Man, if only there was a way to get rid of all this atmosphere on Venus…" Carlos said.

"Good luck with that." D.A. chuckled.

"Also, because of Venus' runaway greenhouse effect, the temperature is not only hot enough to melt lead, but the extreme temperature is maintained on all sides of the planet. It makes no difference if it's day or night." Ms. Frizzle added. "The only way to experience any sort of 'relief' on the surface of Venus is to travel to the top of Maxwell Montes, Venus' highest mountain. There, the atmospheric pressure is lower, though still unbearable by terrestrial standards. The temperature is lower, but still reaches over seven hundred degrees. By then, you're probably better off hanging around in the upper atmosphere of Venus."

"Dang! And here I was hoping there would be snow at the top of those mountains!" Ralphie said, pointing to a group of mountains in the distance.

"Sorry, Ralphie. But there can't be snow on Venus." Janet said. "It's far too hot for it. Right, Ms. Frizzle?"

"Funny you say that, Janet." Ms. Frizzle said. "Who said snow had to be made of water?"

"Yeah, Janet." I blurted, but then paused.

"Wait… Are you saying that there _is_ snow on Venus?" I asked.

"Well, recent radar images from the _Magellan_ spacecraft seem to suggest that there is in fact snow on Venus' high peaks. If there is, no one knows for sure what it's made of. Although it's too hot for water on Venus, scientists think that certain metallic compounds could sublimate at lower altitudes and deposit in higher cooler areas. As far as anyone knows, the snow on Venus could most likely be made of tellurium, pyrite, and other metal sulfides."

"Now that's just _weird_." Tim said. "Snow made of _metal_?"

"I'd see for myself, but it's just too dangerous to do anything on this planet." Ms. Frizzle said. "At least for an extended period. Besides, we still have more planets to see and explore."

"Can we at least take some rock samples before we leave, Ms. Frizzle?" Janet asked.

"Oh, sure! But let's be quick, class. I'm not sure how much longer the bus can handle these conditions. Oh! I almost forgot! One other thing I should mention is that Venus is very similar to Earth when it comes to its surface features. As you can see all around there are long mountain ranges, but there also vast plains, as well as tons of volcanoes. Whether or not they are still active is still being researched. There are also a few impact craters, but not nearly as much here as there are on the Moon and Mercury. This is, again, because of its thick atmosphere since it burns up most meteors before they ever reach the ground. Only the largest rocks ever make it to the surface. Also, apart from Maxwell Montes, every surface feature on Venus is named after important and famous women in history, women like Amelia Earhart and Florence Nightingale."

"That's cool! I never knew that!" Phoebe replied.

"I want a crater named after me!" Janet blurted. "No, maybe _two_ craters!"

Had it not been for the protection of my spacesuit, and for the disappointingly fatal conditions on the Venusian surface, the palm of my hand would've landed squarely in my face as a sign of my returning annoyance toward my cousin. As if to compliment my feelings, another blinding flash of Venusian lightning lit up the landscape around my classmates and me. All I could do was pray that we would get off this planet soon.

"Janet, I like rocks. But _this_ is ridiculous!"

I was holding one end of a large boulder as my cousin held the other end as we carried it over to her ever-growing stash of extraterrestrial rocks in the back of the bus. From what I could tell, Janet already had enough rocks to supply each of us three times over.

"Do you have to have _all_ of these?!" I asked.

"Absolutely. If this doesn't prove that I was on Venus, nothing will!" she replied, as if she had no choice but to take a heaping pile of rocks. What would she do with so many rocks? Was she trying to outdo my rock collection? Was she going to hand them all out to her friends and classmates? Somehow, I doubted the latter scenario was possible.

"I think that's enough to prove that I was on Venus, don't you think?"

"I think that's _more_ than enough." I replied dryly, and not just from having a dry throat.

"Alright, class! It's time to leave for the next planet!" Ms. Frizzle said.

* * *

It had only been about ten or so minutes since we landed on Venus, but it felt like an eternity. I was so glad to be finally leaving this planet, and I guess everyone else was too. Out of all the stops we had made thus far, the Venus one was by far the shortest, and for good reason. The bus could only take so much torture before bad things would happen to it, despite it having magical abilities. Nevertheless, I clutched onto my Venus rock sample as we all reentered the bus and prepared for launch. Once we were strapped in, the rockets almost immediately started to roar, and the bus lurched upwards and made for the sky. I watched as the hellish landscape retreated away from us as we once more made our way through the acidic clouds and turbulent winds of the upper atmosphere, thinking how lucky we were to have the protection of Ms. Frizzle's time-lord magic. In that moment, I noticed that my spacesuit became lighter as it no longer required any protection from the harsh Venusian environment, which was such a relief considering how exhausted I was from moving around in such hot, thick air. Finally, the bus broke the atmospheric barrier and we were back in the vacuum of space, and already speeding towards our next destination in the comfort of zero gravity.

I really, _really_ hoped that our next planetary destination would not be so keen on trying to kill us.

* * *

 **Hey guys! I apologize once more for not updating for so long! I hope this chapter was not too much of a let-down, and that it was worth waiting for.**

 **I thought the title for this chapter was quite appropriate, considering this was the first planet where Janet really starts to use Arnold as her rock collector, putting pressure on him to find the best rock samples. Also, its appropriate because I touched on the crushing pressure of the Venusian atmosphere, something that the show never really mentioned (it was a kid's show after all).**

 **Although not too much was going on with the rivalry between Janet and D.A. this time around, Janet still expressed her frustration with being 'outwitted' by D.A. I can assure you that there will be more drama between them once they get to Mars.**

 **Speaking of Mars, I might end up breaking that planet into two chapters, though I'm not too sure yet. We'll see how things turn out. But until next time, let me know what you guys think about this chapter! I will see you guys in a (hopefully not too late) later update :)**

 **saturn95**


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